Harper and Finley Lockwood are part of one of the most notorious families in the entertainment world. As their late mother's memoir hits shelves, here's a look back at the many hardships the twins have faced over their lifetimes.
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00:00Harper and Finley Lockwood are part of one of the most
00:03notorious families in the entertainment world. As their late mother's memoir hits shelves,
00:07here's a look back at the many hardships the twins have faced over their lifetimes.
00:12After their mother, Lisa Marie Presley, went into cardiac arrest in the bedroom of her Calabasas
00:16home, Finley and Harper Lockwood found it too distressing to consider setting foot at their
00:21residence again. Then, at age 14, the twins were at school when Lisa Marie died. Instead of
00:26returning home, they chose to go to their grandmother's L.A. home, where Riley Keough
00:30also stayed for a while as the family tried to come to terms with their unexpected loss.
00:35Their father, Michael Lockwood, reportedly dropped in frequently to check in on them.
00:39They moved in with their father not long after, as Lockwood secured full custody of them.
00:43Just three weeks after the traumatic loss,
00:45Finley and Harper were seen with their father in Santa Monica.
00:48Living with Lockwood was a big change, and Priscilla and Keough wanted to give them
00:52space to acclimate before becoming heavily involved again. As a source told Us Weekly
00:56in September 2023,
00:58"...they have always been close. But when Lisa Marie died,
01:00the twins' dad Michael took the twins full-time, because it was a big adjustment period for them."
01:06Harper and Finley were seven when their parents divorced. Divorces tend to be hard on kids in
01:11general, but it gets even more challenging when parents fight over their children.
01:14Sadly, Lisa Marie's custody battle over the twins was as brutal as they come.
01:19When she filed papers in June 2016, she asked for full custody. Then, eight months later,
01:24E! News reports Presley accused Michael Lockwood of keeping, quote,
01:28"...hundreds of inappropriate photos of children on his computer."
01:31Presley argued that finding the materials in the home they shared with their daughters
01:34took a toll on her mental health. In court documents challenging his request for spousal
01:39support, she wrote,
01:40"...when I discovered the photos on Lockwood's computer and viewed the videos,
01:43I was shocked and horrified and sick to my stomach. I had no idea that he had taken those
01:48photos. I will refrain from describing the photographs in detail, out of respect for
01:52the privacy of my family."
01:53The Beverly Hills Police confiscated more than 80 devices belonging to Lockwood
01:57right after Presley filed for divorce, but found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in California.
02:02The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation also looked into the allegations,
02:05but similarly found that no crimes had been committed in the state in March 2017.
02:09Presley and Lockwood's divorce was finalized in 2021,
02:13but they continued to battle it out in court over custody and visitation rights for Harper and Finley.
02:17You don't think of them as ever growing up, but now I've had two, I know how fast it happens. So
02:22with these two, I'm just like, oh, I want to take in every second."
02:25In the court documents containing her disturbing allegations against Michael Lockwood,
02:29Lisa Marie also noted that Harper and Finley had been taken into the care of the Department
02:33of Children and Family Services. However, Priscilla Presley denied her granddaughters
02:38had been taken into protective custody, writing in a 2017 Facebook post,
02:42"...there is lots of confusion, commotion, and concern from all the talk circulating.
02:46Let me put this to rest. The girls have not been in foster care and never will be.
02:50The girls have been with me and will be until all this is sorted out."
02:53In a March 2017 interview with ET, Priscilla revealed the twins had been at her home for
02:58several months, indicating she had watched over them since Lisa Marie filed for divorce.
03:02"...it's still a very family-oriented environment for them."
03:06"...are they with you full-time?"
03:07"...they've been with me for maybe over nine months."
03:10Priscilla assured that Lisa Marie and Lockwood continue to be involved in Finley and Harper's
03:14lives. The time the girls lived with Priscilla also had a big impact on their grandmother,
03:19as she told People,
03:20"...I've learned to really listen to what the girls are saying. They have
03:23so much to contribute in their opinions, their viewpoints, and questions. I value that very much."
03:29Just two and a half years before losing their mother, Finley and Harper had already been
03:33through an indescribable grief. In July 2020, Benjamin Keough died by suicide,
03:38ushering in a dark period for his mother and her three remaining children.
03:41As Lisa Marie's manager told Fox News in a statement,
03:44"...she is completely heartbroken, inconsolable, and beyond devastated,
03:48but trying to stay strong for her 11-year-old twins and her oldest daughter Riley."
03:52The bond between the four siblings was apparent over the years. As Lisa Marie told Healthy Living
03:56in 2014,
03:57"...we all are very, very close. The older ones absolutely adore the younger ones,
04:02and they help me with them. We all kind of hold each other up. We are all each other's best
04:06friends."
04:06Amid the unusual circumstances in which they grew up, the family was glad they could always
04:11count on one another. Riley often showed off their special relationship on their social media,
04:15making her tributes to Ben that much more painful. As she captioned an Instagram post in July 2022,
04:21"...not an hour goes by where I don't think of you and miss you. It's been two years today
04:25since you left, and I still can't believe you're not here. You are so loved, my Ben Ben."
04:30"...I think when you're in grief, as you know, like, everything for the first time hits you.
04:36It's like, oh, I'm experiencing this in grief now."
04:38Despite all their shared heartache, Riley remained grateful for her mother's love.
04:42As she wrote in a letter read by her husband at Lisa Marie's funeral,
04:46"...I am a product of your heart. My sisters are a product of your heart.
04:49My brother is a product of your heart."
04:51On October 7th, 2024, Finley and Harper turned 16. They celebrated the milestone birthday on
04:57the eve of the release of Lisa Marie Presley's memoir on October 8th, which put the spotlight
05:02on many of their family's ups and downs. One of them was that the twins' birth led to Lisa Marie's
05:06addiction to prescription drugs. Her recovery from the C-section was hard,
05:10so her doctor prescribed her painkillers. Sadly, she didn't stop after her bottle ran out.
05:15She wrote in a foreword for Harry Nelson's book, The United States of Opioids,
05:19"...it only took a short-term prescription of opioids in the hospital for me to feel
05:22the need to keep taking them. It spiraled from there."
05:25In her memoir, she admitted she got to the point of taking 80 pills on a daily basis.
05:29After years of addiction, Lisa Marie wasn't taking the pills just to get high anymore.
05:34She wrote,
05:34"...the severity of the withdrawal would have left me either in the hospital or dead.
05:38My blood pressure would shoot up so high."
05:40It must be difficult for Finley and Harper to know that their birth had such severe consequences.
05:45However, their family made sure to keep the day focused on them by celebrating on social media.
05:50As Riley Keough wrote on Instagram,
05:52"...you are the most special girls in the whole wide world. I am so lucky to be your big sissy."
05:58If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts,
06:01please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK.
06:08That's 1-800-273-8255.