Lisa Marie Presley Book Reveals Michael Jackson Was ‘Still a Virgin’ at 35 When They Dated: ‘I Was Terrified’

Presley wrote of their whirlwind relationship and marriage in her posthumous memoir, ‘From Here to the Great Unknown’

Lisa Marie Presley’s posthumous memoir shares intimate details from her relationship with Michael Jackson.

After first meeting when they were young, Presley and Jackson got together romantically in 1994. Before they officially began dating, Presley was still married to her first husband, Danny Keough — but they split after Jackson confessed his love to her during a trip they took to Las Vegas.

“Michael said,’ I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m completely in love with you. I want us to get married and for you to have my children,’” Presley writes in From Here to the Great Unknown, which was released on Tuesday, Oct. 8. “I didn’t say anything immediately, but then I said, ‘I’m really flattered, I can’t even talk.’ By then, I felt I was in love with him too.”

After that epiphany in Sin City, Presley and Keough amicably split, and she got together with Jackson.

Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson at Versailles in 1994.Stephane Cardinale/Sygma via Getty

When they were romantically involved, “He told me he was still a virgin,” Presley writes in the book. “I think he had kissed Tatum O’Neal, and he’d had a thing with Brooke Shields, which hadn’t been physical apart from a kiss. He said Madonna had tried to hook up with him once, too, but nothing happened. I was terrified because I didn’t want to make the wrong move.”

Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson in the ’90s.Ken Goff/Globe Photos/ZUMA Wire

The pair tied the knot in May 1994 when Jackson was 35 and Presley was 25 — just weeks after her divorce from Keough — and they were married for more than two years before finalizing their divorce in August 1996.

Jackson died of cardiac arrest in 2009; he was 50. Presley died of a small bowel obstruction, a long-term complication from bariatric surgery she underwent several years ago, in January 2023 at age 54. After her death, Presley’s daughter, actress Riley Keough, completed the memoir by listening to tapes of memories her mother left behind.

Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley at Radio City Music Hall in 1994.AFP via Getty

“Because my mother was Elvis Presley’s daughter, she was constantly talked about, argued over and dissected,” Riley, 35, told PEOPLE in an exclusive email interview for last week’s cover story. “What she wanted to do in her memoir, and what I hope I’ve done in finishing it for her, is to go beneath the magazine headline idea of her and reveal the core of who she was. To turn her into a three-dimensional human being: the best mother, a wild child, a fierce friend, an underrated artist, frank, funny, traumatized, joyous, grieving, everything that she was throughout her remarkable life. I want to give voice to my mother in a way that eluded her while she was alive.”

Presley’s aim with her memoir was simple, Riley adds: connection.

“I hope that in an extraordinary circumstance, people relate to a very human experience of love, heartbreak, loss, addiction and family,” she says. “[My mom] wanted to write a book in the hopes that someone could read her story and relate to her, to know that they’re not alone in the world. Her hope with this book was just human connection. So that’s mine.”