What many fans often overlook: Priscilla Presley is not just Lisa Marie’s mother. She also has a son: Navarone. Now he is telling his story for the first time.
Many fans remember Priscilla Presley (77) as the widow of rock legend Elvis Presley († 42). Together with her daughter Lisa Marie († 54), who died of a sudden cardiac arrest about three weeks ago and left behind three daughters, she kept alive the memory and glorious legacy of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. But Priscilla also has a son, which often goes unmentioned: Navarone (35), who was born in 1987 – ten years after Elvis Presley’s death.
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Lisa Marie’s half-brother Navarone on her death: “Still surreal”
The young man appeared at the public memorial service for Lisa Marie at Graceland as he mourned the loss of his half-sister, 19 years his senior, and offered comfort to his mother, Priscilla. “It’s still surreal,” he said in an interview with People, in which he opened up about living in the shadow of Elvis Presley, battling his drug addiction and how a family secret cut the bond with his father.
Navarone’s parents Priscilla Presley and Marco Garibaldi were lovers for around 20 years
When Navarone was born, his parents, Priscilla Presley and filmmaker Marco Garibaldi (68), had been together for just three years. Priscilla had separated from Elvis Presley in 1973 after six years of marriage and moved away with Elvis’ only daughter Lisa Marie. His death in 1977 tore a big hole in her life, but with Marco Garibaldi she got a second chance at love.
Both were together from 1984 to 2006. In 1987 their luck was crowned with the birth of their son Navarone, who grew up away from the public eye. It was still not a carefree life, as he explained in an interview with “People”: When his schoolmates and especially their mothers found out who his mother was, he hardly had any peace, everyone buzzed around Priscilla: “I didn’t deal with it very comfortable,” admitted Navarone.
Break with his father when Navarone found out about the family secret
He had a rather distant relationship with his father, and it was only after they separated that they became closer. “The role model function didn’t work between us,” he recalled, but it worked better as buddies: “He wanted someone to go drinking with.” A rift ran through their relationship when Nararone found out in 2017 that he wasn’t of Italian descent – as his father had always insisted – but that his father was from Brazil. A Spanish-sounding name wouldn’t get you anywhere in Hollywood, so Garcia became the surname Garibaldi, it was said at the time. When he confronted his father about it, he only replied: “From now on you don’t have to call anymore.” Since then, the two have not been in contact.
Lisa Marie’s half brother found it difficult to get into the music business
At 18, Navarone wanted to be able to stand on his own two feet and moved to Santa Cruz. There he founded his band “Them Guns”, with which he still works in the studio and on stage. But the reporters found him there too. So he returned in 2012 and started to seriously tinker with his music career. “I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll go into the family business. I’ll write a song and then we’ll start touring,'” he explained.
But it wasn’t that easy, as he had to admit: “I didn’t realize that much more was needed.” Lisa Marie had also embarked on a career as a musician, but he was not particularly close to his half-sister.
Navarone fought his drug addiction for his great love Elisa Achilli
He finally addressed the drug problem that had gripped him since his teens when he met the love of his life, Elisa Achilli, 22, whom he married last year. In order to be able to live with her in Switzerland during the corona pandemic and not be determined by his drug use, he decided to go into rehab – at his mother Priscilla’s house.
By this point, Navarone had switched from heroin to fentanyl: “That was a whole different beast. I got so addicted I needed it every 45 minutes.” After withdrawal, he felt like a different person. Bandmate Kyle Hamood also commented: “It’s a day and night difference. It’s like we have the old Navarone back.”
Navarone plans to travel to Brazil with his mother, Priscilla
Now he would like to stand by his mother in her great grief, who lost her beloved daughter Lisa Marie, two years earlier her grandson Benjamin Keough († 27) and her mother Anna Lillian Iversen († 95) in a very short time. Regarding the dispute over Lisa Maria’s will, which benefits her daughters Riley Keough, 33, and her twins Finley and Harper, 14, and which her mother, Priscilla, wants to challenge, he only said that he gets along very well with Riley and that he admired her for taking care of the twins.
Source-news.google.com