Riley Keough Remembers Last Time She Saw Mom Lisa Marie Presley and 'How Beautiful She Looked'

Riley Keough will always remember how "beautiful" her mom looked the last time she saw her.

In a cover story interview with Vanity Fair for their September issue, the Daisy Jones and the Six actress recalled the last time she saw Lisa Marie Presley before her death in January. They both attended a party for the Elvis film a day before the Golden Globes.

 “We had dinner,” Keough, 34, recalled. "That was the last time I saw her. I remember thinking about how beautiful she looked, and that was my strongest memory of the dinner."

"I have been through a great deal of pain and I’ve had my.… Parts of me have died and I’ve felt like my heart has exploded, but I also feel.… I’m trying to think of how to phrase this.… I have strengthened the qualities that have come about through adversity," she continued.

After the death of her younger brother Benjamin Keough by suicide in 2020, the actress said there "was no road map" and "a lot of big emotions I didn't know what to do with." By the time Presley also died suddenly two and a half years later, she was "familiar with the process a little bit more."

"I find it triggering when people say happiness is a choice but in that moment, I did feel like there was a choice in front of me to give up and let this event take me out or have the courage to work through it," she added. "I started trying to move through it and not let it take me out."

When asked how she would like people to remember her mom, Keough thought hard and came to one conclusion: "She was really one of a kind."

“The life she had was not easy, and the treachery she endured and the lack of real love and real friends.… She definitely had some great friends and relationships in her life, but I don’t think she really ever had.… People were just coming for her since she was born — wanting something from her and not being totally authentic," she said.

Keough added, "She had to develop very thick skin. She was a very powerful presence and extremely loving and extremely loyal and sort of a lioness — a fierce woman, and a really wonderful mother. I think that would be my summary because I’m her daughter. She was the best mom."

In July, Keough marked the third anniversary of the death of her brother Benjamin, who died on July 12, 2020 at age 27, and six months since Presley's death at age 54.

The War Pony director shared a black-and-white throwback photo of her mom and younger brother on her Instagram Story. The snap featured Benjamin as a child, posing behind Lisa Marie as he pulled a silly expression for the camera.

"Missing you both," she wrote, adding a red heart emoji.

Last week, Keough was officially named the sole trustee of Lisa Marie's estate after a legal dispute with grandmother Priscilla Presley. She will also preside over the sub-trusts of her 14-year-old half-sisters Finley and Harper Lockwood, Lisa Marie's daughters from her marriage to musician Michael Lockwood.