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Diane Sawyer: Though nothing Lisa Marie Presley would ever do to her mum would equal this. Okay? Michael Jackson?
Lisa Marie Presley: Oh, God.
Diane Sawyer: Michael Jackson!
Lisa Marie Presley: I thought you were going to go here first. I was hoping you’d forgot.
Diane Sawyer: Why did you marry Michael Jackson?
Lisa Marie Presley: Okay, can I just, well …
Diane Sawyer: What were you doing?
Lisa Marie Presley: Um, let me, let me now … I’ve been trying to go through this. I haven’t thought much about this, what I was going to say and I just figured it would fly out of my mouth. Okay, first of all, he was very quick to … the first time I met him, sit me down and go, “Listen, I’m not gay. I know you think this, I know you think that”, and he started cursing and started, you know, being a normal person. And I was like, “Wow!” So I get caught up in that I’m pulled in right away. Like, “Wow, you’re so misunderstood. Oh my God, you’re this guy.” I fell into this whole, “You poor, sweet misunderstood thing, I’m going to save you.” I fell into that. I fell in love with him, I did.
Diane Sawyer: In love?
Lisa Marie Presley: Yes, I fell in love at the time. Now …
Diane Sawyer: Sexual attraction?
Lisa Marie Presley: I told you everything I said was the truth.
Diane Sawyer: Sexual attraction?
Lisa Marie Presley: At the time. Yeah.
Diane Sawyer: What did your mother say?
Lisa Marie Presley: She called me and said, you know, “Oh Lisa, there’s helicopters outside the house and they’re saying you married Michael Jackson”, and I go … I was just quiet and she goes, “You didn’t?” She goes, “You didn’t?” And I go, “Yeah, I did” and then it was just, you know, that was that was game on for me. Whoo! Mum doesn’t like it, let’s go!
Diane Sawyer: She didn’t you know you were going to get married?
Lisa Marie Presley: No, no that was quick, that was like run away and do this quick thing.
Diane Sawyer: And you did live together?
Lisa Marie Presley: Yeah.
Diane Sawyer: I didn’t believe that.
Lisa Marie Presley: Well, let’s just put it this way, if he was in town, he was at my house.
Diane Sawyer: Which was how often?
Lisa Marie Presley: I don’t know. It started to get less and less towards the end.
Diane Sawyer: Again, you can slug me on this question but I’ve got to go back. So these were, like, romantic nights?
Lisa Marie Presley: Mmm, mmm, yeah. I don’t remember them very well, but yes. I mean, it was normal. I wasn’t going to get married if it wasn’t that.
Diane Sawyer: By the time Lisa Marie Presley married Michael Jackson, Jackson reportedly had been treated for addiction to painkillers. He was also under siege. He had been investigated for child molestation with a 12-year-old boy. Jackson settled a civil suit with the family reportedly for millions of dollars and his camp implied he was the victim of extortion.
Lisa Marie Presley: I was already friends with him, there was already some romantic stuff going on a little bit before that happened. So it was like, I was already like, you know, I was the only one he would be calling so I felt all privileged and, you know, that he was trusting me and telling me what happened and it was very convincing and I believed him, at the time.
Diane Sawyer: But she says her mother looked at the timing of the marriage and tried to make her see something else.
Lisa Marie Presley: That’s what my mum was trying to point out like “Hello, are you awake? Can you see this might be co-ordinating or coinciding with something else?” And I didn’t see that, like, I was young. I don’t know. I mean, it looked a little suspicious but at the same time I know that he loved me, you know, as much as he can love someone, I think he did.
Diane Sawyer: What do you mean as much as he can love someone?
Lisa Marie Presley: I just mean, you know, as much as he can be capable of doing that. It’s not something he’s used to doing is having relationships with women, you know? He’s sort of been a one-man show his whole life.
Diane Sawyer: How did it end? What happened?
Lisa Marie Presley: It just kind of went really sour, really fast.
Diane Sawyer: But you filed for divorce from Michael?
Lisa Marie Presley: Yes.
Diane Sawyer: And how did you tell him that was it?
Lisa Marie Presley: It was when he was, you know, it was over the phone. I’d had enough. There was a lot of stuff going on then. It got really ugly at the end. It wasn’t pretty but I don’t want to get into it.
Diane Sawyer: Did he fight you getting a divorce?
Lisa Marie Presley: No, he … I think he got on to, you know, getting somebody else pregnant, right? Or having a baby. That’s what he wanted. He seemed to get on that pretty quick. You know, I don’t know.
Diane Sawyer: Did it shake your confidence?
Lisa Marie Presley: Yeah, I was pretty much needed to be mopped up off the floor after that one.
Diane Sawyer: And then 108 days of nuptial nitroglycerine with actor Nicolas Cage … a relationship so tempestuous she reportedly threw her $65,000 engagement ring into the ocean. You were really in love?
Lisa Marie Presley: With which one?
Diane Sawyer: With Nic Cage?
Lisa Marie Presley: Yeah, I was.
[...]
Diane Sawyer: Why do you marry them when it’s like this?
Lisa Marie Presley: You know what it is? It’s I get attracted to artists. I’m attracted to artists. I like it when someone’s shaking it up, when they’re different. I don’t know why, I’ll never know why but it’s just what I get attracted to.
Diane Sawyer: Anyone out there who says “she’s loony” …
Lisa Marie Presley: Yeah.
Diane Sawyer: I mean, how do you explain to them?
Lisa Marie Presley: I’ll say it loud and say it proud, I’m completely insane.
Diane Sawyer: Have you figured out why?
Lisa Marie Presley: Um, God … no. No, I think when I figure out why I might stop and that might be boring.
[...]
Diane Sawyer: Five years from now, imagine a perfect day for me.
Lisa Marie Presley: It doesn’t take much for me to be a perfect day. So long as there’s not divorce involved in it, I’m fine.
Lisa Marie Presley: Oh, God.
Diane Sawyer: Michael Jackson!
Lisa Marie Presley: I thought you were going to go here first. I was hoping you’d forgot.
Diane Sawyer: Why did you marry Michael Jackson?
Lisa Marie Presley: Okay, can I just, well …
Diane Sawyer: What were you doing?
Lisa Marie Presley: Um, let me, let me now … I’ve been trying to go through this. I haven’t thought much about this, what I was going to say and I just figured it would fly out of my mouth. Okay, first of all, he was very quick to … the first time I met him, sit me down and go, “Listen, I’m not gay. I know you think this, I know you think that”, and he started cursing and started, you know, being a normal person. And I was like, “Wow!” So I get caught up in that I’m pulled in right away. Like, “Wow, you’re so misunderstood. Oh my God, you’re this guy.” I fell into this whole, “You poor, sweet misunderstood thing, I’m going to save you.” I fell into that. I fell in love with him, I did.
Diane Sawyer: In love?
Lisa Marie Presley: Yes, I fell in love at the time. Now …
Diane Sawyer: Sexual attraction?
Lisa Marie Presley: I told you everything I said was the truth.
Diane Sawyer: Sexual attraction?
Lisa Marie Presley: At the time. Yeah.
Diane Sawyer: What did your mother say?
Lisa Marie Presley: She called me and said, you know, “Oh Lisa, there’s helicopters outside the house and they’re saying you married Michael Jackson”, and I go … I was just quiet and she goes, “You didn’t?” She goes, “You didn’t?” And I go, “Yeah, I did” and then it was just, you know, that was that was game on for me. Whoo! Mum doesn’t like it, let’s go!
Diane Sawyer: She didn’t you know you were going to get married?
Lisa Marie Presley: No, no that was quick, that was like run away and do this quick thing.
Diane Sawyer: And you did live together?
Lisa Marie Presley: Yeah.
Diane Sawyer: I didn’t believe that.
Lisa Marie Presley: Well, let’s just put it this way, if he was in town, he was at my house.
Diane Sawyer: Which was how often?
Lisa Marie Presley: I don’t know. It started to get less and less towards the end.
Diane Sawyer: Again, you can slug me on this question but I’ve got to go back. So these were, like, romantic nights?
Lisa Marie Presley: Mmm, mmm, yeah. I don’t remember them very well, but yes. I mean, it was normal. I wasn’t going to get married if it wasn’t that.
Diane Sawyer: By the time Lisa Marie Presley married Michael Jackson, Jackson reportedly had been treated for addiction to painkillers. He was also under siege. He had been investigated for child molestation with a 12-year-old boy. Jackson settled a civil suit with the family reportedly for millions of dollars and his camp implied he was the victim of extortion.
Lisa Marie Presley: I was already friends with him, there was already some romantic stuff going on a little bit before that happened. So it was like, I was already like, you know, I was the only one he would be calling so I felt all privileged and, you know, that he was trusting me and telling me what happened and it was very convincing and I believed him, at the time.
Diane Sawyer: But she says her mother looked at the timing of the marriage and tried to make her see something else.
Lisa Marie Presley: That’s what my mum was trying to point out like “Hello, are you awake? Can you see this might be co-ordinating or coinciding with something else?” And I didn’t see that, like, I was young. I don’t know. I mean, it looked a little suspicious but at the same time I know that he loved me, you know, as much as he can love someone, I think he did.
Diane Sawyer: What do you mean as much as he can love someone?
Lisa Marie Presley: I just mean, you know, as much as he can be capable of doing that. It’s not something he’s used to doing is having relationships with women, you know? He’s sort of been a one-man show his whole life.
Diane Sawyer: How did it end? What happened?
Lisa Marie Presley: It just kind of went really sour, really fast.
Diane Sawyer: But you filed for divorce from Michael?
Lisa Marie Presley: Yes.
Diane Sawyer: And how did you tell him that was it?
Lisa Marie Presley: It was when he was, you know, it was over the phone. I’d had enough. There was a lot of stuff going on then. It got really ugly at the end. It wasn’t pretty but I don’t want to get into it.
Diane Sawyer: Did he fight you getting a divorce?
Lisa Marie Presley: No, he … I think he got on to, you know, getting somebody else pregnant, right? Or having a baby. That’s what he wanted. He seemed to get on that pretty quick. You know, I don’t know.
Diane Sawyer: Did it shake your confidence?
Lisa Marie Presley: Yeah, I was pretty much needed to be mopped up off the floor after that one.
Diane Sawyer: And then 108 days of nuptial nitroglycerine with actor Nicolas Cage … a relationship so tempestuous she reportedly threw her $65,000 engagement ring into the ocean. You were really in love?
Lisa Marie Presley: With which one?
Diane Sawyer: With Nic Cage?
Lisa Marie Presley: Yeah, I was.
[...]
Diane Sawyer: Why do you marry them when it’s like this?
Lisa Marie Presley: You know what it is? It’s I get attracted to artists. I’m attracted to artists. I like it when someone’s shaking it up, when they’re different. I don’t know why, I’ll never know why but it’s just what I get attracted to.
Diane Sawyer: Anyone out there who says “she’s loony” …
Lisa Marie Presley: Yeah.
Diane Sawyer: I mean, how do you explain to them?
Lisa Marie Presley: I’ll say it loud and say it proud, I’m completely insane.
Diane Sawyer: Have you figured out why?
Lisa Marie Presley: Um, God … no. No, I think when I figure out why I might stop and that might be boring.
[...]
Diane Sawyer: Five years from now, imagine a perfect day for me.
Lisa Marie Presley: It doesn’t take much for me to be a perfect day. So long as there’s not divorce involved in it, I’m fine.
