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Priscilla Presley’s ex-business partner demanded she turn over private emails and texts with her granddaughter Riley Keough and her late daughter Lisa Marie Presley’s ex-husband, Michael Lockwood, In Touch can exclusively report.
According to court documents obtained by In Touch, the request for the messages was made as part of the ongoing battle between Priscilla, 79, and her ex-business partner Brigitte Kruse.
Brigitte, via the company she created Priscilla Presley Partners [PPP], asked Priscilla to produce documents and communications between her and John Travolta, Lisa Marie’s ex-husband Michael Lockwood, Riley, 35, Priscilla’s son, Navarone Garcia, and various other business partners.
Specifically, she asked Priscilla for documents or texts between her and the parties discussing her move to Florida, her forming a company called Priscilla Presley Partners with Brigitte and any talk about her doing business in Florida.
Michael and Lisa Marie were married from 2006 until 2016. Their divorce was finalized in 2021.
In October 2023, PPP, which was formed by Brigitte and others, sued Priscilla for breach of contract.
PPP, via a lawyer, claimed Priscilla approached Brigitte in August 2022 about taking over management of her business and personal affairs.
Brigitte claimed that by the 2020’s “Priscilla’s celebrity was a mere shadow of what it once was and her earning potential was only a fraction of what it previously was.”
PPP claimed that due to mismanagement by Priscilla’s former team, Priscilla was facing large liabilities and little income opportunities.
Brigitte, along with the help of others, created PPP and had Priscilla appointed Brigitte as cotrustee to her trust and granted her general and health care powers of attorney.
In the suit, PPP said Priscilla breached the deal by cutting it out of deals including a Venice Film Festival appearance and a Graceland Christmas Special on NBC.
Priscilla demanded the lawsuit be dismissed due to her having no ties to Florida, where the case was filed.
She also filed a $1 million lawsuit in California accusing Brigitte and others of financial elder abuse. In her lawsuit, Priscilla accused Brigitte of being a “con artist and pathological liar.”
She claimed Brigitte and other parties had her sign agreements that paid them 80 percent of her income on some deals.
Priscilla’s lawyer wrote, “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.”
As In Touch first reported, earlier this month, Priscilla filed an emotional declaration as part of her lawsuit. Elvis ex accused Brigitte of causing issues with her and her family after Lisa Marie passed away in January 2023.
She claimed her ex-business associate caused “strife” with her granddaughter Riley.
In PPP’s lawsuit, the company explained the situation between Priscilla and Riley a bit differently.
PPP claimed a dispute arose that called into question a 2016 amendment to Lisa Marie’s trust that replaced Priscilla as trustee with Lisa Marie’s children. Priscilla contested the validity of the amendment, as it “appeared Lisa Marie’s signature on the operative document had been forged.”
The battle over the trust was eventually settled with Riley paying her grandmother a lump sum in exchange for her dropping her petition contesting the 2016 amendment.
In the California lawsuit, Priscilla also claimed that Brigitte ruined her relationship with Sofia Coppola, who directed the 2024 film Priscilla based on her book about her time with Elvis.
In a declaration submitted in court, Priscilla said Brigitte “made a concerted effort to inject herself into the deal that I already had negotiated pertaining to the adaptation of my book into the feature film, Priscilla, by sending 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.”
She said that Brigitte’s “interference (which was for her own benefit, but under the guise of ‘helping me’ strained my relationship with Sofia Coppola.”
A lawyer for Brigitte and another defendant Kevin Fialko denied the claims in Priscilla’s lawsuit in a statement to TMZ.
The attorney said, “The suit filed is a retaliatory lawsuit due to the one filed by Priscilla’s business partners last year. We are confident that the facts will speak for themselves, and justice will prevail. It saddens all of us who dropped our lives to provide aid to a woman who needed help and she is now attempting to use her celebrity status to ruin the lives of kind, hardworking people. Thank you to all of our supporters who have stood by us during this difficult time. We will continue to focus on our business and look forward to our day in court. The truth will come out by way of evidence and not rumors. There will be no further comment at this time as we respect the judicial process.”
Both lawsuits are still pending.
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