Lisa Marie Presley's Memoir Reveals She Was Taking 80 Pills a Day Amid Opioid Addiction

Lisa Marie Presley's cause of death was a small bowel obstruction, a long-term complication fro a bariatric surgery that also led to opioid addiction issues.

By Stephen Andrew

Lisa Marie Presley's substance abuse struggles were much worse than many knew. In her posthumously released memoir, the late musician reveals that, at the deepest point in her opioid addiction, she was taking 80 pills a day.

"It escalated to 80 pills a day," Lisa Marie writes in her new book, From Here to the Great Unknown. "It took more and more to get high, and I honestly don't know when your body decides it can't deal with it anymore. But it does decide at some point." Lisa Marie goes on to share that her drug use was "recreational" for a couple of years, until "it wasn't."

"It was an absolute matter of addiction, withdrawal in the big leagues," Lisa Marie adds in the excerpt shared by PEOPLE. "I just wanted to check out. It was too painful to be sober."

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(Photo: CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)

Lisa Marie's daughter, Riley Keough helped finish the memoir and writes that her mom got addicted to prescription painkillers following the 2008 c-section birth of her twins Finley and Harper — whom she shared with ex-husband Michael Lockwood — and "then she progressed to taking them to sleep." She adds that her mom felt "shame" about becoming an addict with two young children.

Riley goes on to note that Lisa Marie's addiction was a surprise to the family, as the mother-of-four typically wouldn't even take Advil or Tylenol. Lisa Marie had gone through substance abuse issues as a teenager but after getting sober had never touched them again until that point.

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Lisa Marie was eventually hospitalized for her addiction and was sent to court-ordered rehab in L.A. There, Riley recalls, her mother decided to have bariatric surgery. "I didn't feel she was ready to be sober," Riley writes, going on to reveal that Lisa Marie wasn't taking narcotics anymore after rehab, but she was getting high "on the post-rehab cocktail." She finally decided to get sober after being hospitalized again, this time because of a seizure. "She had been very chastened by the seizure," Riley writes.

Sadly, on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023 Lisa Marie was rushed to the hospital after suffering a medical emergency. She died some time later. She was 54. It was later announced that her cause of death was a small bowel obstruction, a long-term complication from her bariatric surgery.

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