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Priscilla Presley filed new court documents in her ongoing elder abuse lawsuit.
In new court documents, Presley, 79, claimed that a former business associate came between her relationships with granddaughter Riley Keough and director Sofia Coppola in the filing obtained by Us Weekly. (In Touch was first to break the news.)
Presley accused defendant Brigitte Kruse and her alleged cohorts of making “a concerted effort to gain my trust and isolate me from my key advisors.”
“They expanded the scope of their interests in my affairs, seeking to inject themselves into every area of my life,” the filing reads. “Under the guise of ‘assisting’ me with my financial affairs, which Defendants contend were being mismanaged by my long-time advisors, defendants duped me into giving them control over my finances and access to my funds.”
According to Presley, Kruse had isolated her from family, friends and advisors to “assert more and more control over my life.”
“She made an effort to inject herself into every business deal I had at the time and personal disputes that had nothing to do with her,” Presley claimed in the docs, adding that Kruse allegedly tried to interfere in her relationship with Coppola, 53. (The filmmaker directed Priscilla in 2023 about Priscilla’s past marriage to the late Elvis Presley.)
Priscilla further claimed that Kruse “strained” her relationship with Coppola after trying to “inject herself into the deal” she made about adapting her memoir for the big screen.
“[She sent] multiple communications to the film’s director in Los Angeles, Sofia Coppola, attempting to get a credit on the picture, and attempting to get invited to the film’s premiere,” the docs claimed, arguing that Kruse did the same with Priscilla’s family.
“[She] made every effort to inject herself into a family issue that I was having when my daughter, Lisa Marie, unexpectedly passed away in January 2023,” Priscilla further alleged. “Including (but not limited to) by making multiple unrequested trips to California to meet with me, interfering with legal negotiations and a resulting settlement agreement, and causing strife between me and my granddaughter [Riley].”
Lisa Marie, the only child of Elvis and Priscilla, inherited her father’s Graceland estate and more when he died in 1977. After she died in 2023, the ownership was transferred to Keough, 35. (Riley is the eldest child of Lisa Marie and ex Danny Keough. Their son, Benjamin, died in 2020 at age 27.)
After a back-and-forth battle over Lisa Marie’s will, Riley and Priscilla ultimately settled out of court. (In November 2023, Priscilla said on Piers Morgan Uncensored that she trusted Riley to run the estate “well.”)
“Things with Grandma will be happy,” Riley told Vanity Fair in a profile published late last year. “They’ve never not been happy. … There was a bit of upheaval [after my mom died], but now everything’s going to be how it was. [Priscilla’s] a beautiful woman and she was a huge part of creating my grandfather’s legacy and Graceland. It’s very important to her. He was the love of her life.”
Regarding Priscilla’s ongoing lawsuit, Us Weekly confirmed in July 2024 that she sued four of her former business associates for $1 million after they accused her of elder abuse. The actress claimed in her legal motion that Kruse and other associates conspired to take advantage of her finances, calling Kruse a “con artist and pathological liar.” Per Priscilla, the two women met in 2021 when Kruse started selling Elvis memorabilia before slowly taking control of Priscilla’s finances.
Priscilla’s lawyers wrote in the initial filing: “This action arises out of a meticulously planned and abhorrent scheme by the defendants in this action to prey on an older woman by gaining her trust, isolating her from the most important people in her life, and duping her into believing that they would take care of her (personally and financially), while their real goal was to drain her of every last penny she had.”
In a statement to Us, Kruse said, “Any statements I have to make will be in my court documents. However, I have decided to write a book about my treatment and experience with this family. It is coming. One would never be able to comprehend what these people have done to me and my children, let alone each other. The whole truth is coming out and I will see to that.”
