Riley Keough is missing her brother, Benjamin Keough, one year after the last time she ever saw him. The Zola actress, 32, shared a throwback photo to her Instagram Story of her and Benjamin smiling together in a selfie, sharing that it was the last time she ever saw him before he died by suicide a week later. He was 27.
“A year ago this morning was the last time I got to see you,” Keough wrote with the photo. “I didn’t hug you properly because I thought you had COVID. I wish I’d hugged you properly. I miss you every day.” Keough, the granddaughter of Elvis Presley, has opened up about Benjamin’s death recently, telling InStyle that she’s “really consciously trying to be present, and not use anything as any kind of escape, and be cognizant of when I’m doing that.”
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“I’m just generally trying to be grateful for everything at the moment, trying to operate in love, and keep my heart open, and give and receive love,” she continued. “And not in a woo-woo way, because I definitely have hard days, and all kinds of pain and suffering and all that.
“But I think when you realize that’s part of it, and your expectation isn’t to just be feeling joy, that’s been a real shift for me in finding those moments and things to smile about,” the actress added.
Keough revealed in March that she finished training to become a death doula or a person who assists in the dying process, writing at the time that she was “an almost certified” death midwife. She said that after finishing her training, she “felt like writing such a deep thank you to this community” that is teaching and training people “in conscious dying and death work.” She went on to reflect on how many people view death and the importance of educating people on the topic.
“We are taught that its a morbid subject to talk about. Or were so afraid of it that we’re unable to talk about it… then, of course, it happens to us, and we are very ill-prepared,” she wrote. “I think it’s so important to be educated on conscious dying and death the way we educate ourselves on birth and conscious birthing. We prepare ourselves so rigorously for the entrance and have no preparation for our exit.”
Riley and Benjamin Keough are the children of Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough, who were married from October 1988 to May 1994. Benjamin passed away in July 2020 in Calabasas, California, with an autopsy report finding that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The autopsy also noted that the 27-year-old had a history of depression and had attempted suicide five to six months before his death. Riley Keough has shared numerous tributes to her brother, calling him her “best friend” and her “angel.”
If you or someone you know are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741-741.
