Riley Keough Opens Up About Her Heartbreaking Struggle with the Loss of Mom Lisa Marie and Brother Benjamin
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Riley Keough opened up about the two most profound losses in her life—her brother Benjamin and her mother, Lisa Marie Presley. The actress faced the tragedies back-to-back, with only a year and a half separating the two.
In an interview with People magazine, she shared, “It went from joy for 25 years of my life to this nightmare in about a year and a half.” The emotional toll has been significant, as Keough continues to navigate the grief of losing her loved ones in such a short period.
Benjamin Keough reportedly died by suicide at the age of 27 in 2020, while Lisa Marie passed away at 54 due to a small bowel obstruction, a long-term complication from bariatric surgery.
“My brother was just an incredibly sensitive person, and there was addiction there with him,” the Daisy Jones & The Six actress told the outlet. She expressed her ongoing struggle to comprehend his loss, stating, “It’s something I am constantly replaying in my mind going, ‘What happened?’ Because it felt like everything was fine and extremely normal for many years. So it was very destabilizing and shocking. I think my brother’s addiction was his way of coping with his own discomfort and emotional pain. And it was a few years that got just really incredibly difficult.”
Keough also reflected on the connection between the deaths of her brother and mother, admitting, “It’s something I think about all the time, and I’m trying to make sense of it all the time.” She explained that the hardest part has been reconciling the beautiful memories of their family life with the sudden decline.
“Like I said before, what has been the hardest about all of this is that we had such great and beautiful times, and most of our life was that. So it was really hard for us to understand the decline in the family,” she added. Keough’s candid reflections highlight the emotional complexity of coping with loss and the difficulty of reconciling cherished memories with grief and trauma.
