Riley Keough: during her mother’s funeral, the actress reveals that she secretly became a mother

The daughter of Lisa Marie Presley, actress Riley Keough, revealed this Sunday, in a speech written in tribute to her mother, to have secretly welcomed her first child.

Riley Keough and husband Ben Smith-Petersen have welcomed a daughter, a rep for the actress confirmed to Page Six on Sunday, Jan. 22. The actor and stuntman had a few hours earlier made this surprising revelation himself, while reading a letter from his wife during the funeral of Lisa Marie Presley at Graceland this Sunday.

“Thank you for showing me that love is the only thing that matters in this life. I hope to be able to love my daughter as you loved me, as you loved my brother and my sisters”, was it notably written in this letter from Riley Keough, intended for her late mother Lisa Marie Presley.

“Thank you for giving me strength, my heart, my empathy, my courage, my sense of humor, my manners, my temper, my savagery, my tenacity. I am a product of your heart, my sisters are a product of your heart, my brother is a product of your heart,” he wrote.

Ben Smith-Petersen, who married Riley Keough in 2015, did not specify their daughter’s date of birth or reveal her name.

Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley and his wife, Priscilla Presley, died on January 12 after suffering cardiac arrest. She therefore left behind three daughters, but also a granddaughter.

In addition to Riley, Lisa Marie was also the mother of 14-year-old twins Finley and Harper Lockwood. She also had a son, Benjamin Keough, who died by suicide in July 2020 at the age of 27, and with whom she now rests.

The memory of a loving mother

Riley Keough, who was scheduled to speak at the funeral but ultimately preferred to leave it to her husband, sat in the front row as her husband read the letter aloud on her behalf. A moving letter evoking his childhood memories.

“I remember you giving me baths as a baby, driving me around in my car seat listening to Aretha Franklin… taking me out for ice cream after school in Florida,” he said. -she writes.

“I remember you singing lullabies to me and my brother at night, and how you lay with us until we fell asleep. I remember what it was like to be loved by the most loving mother I have ever known. How safe I felt in your arms, I remember feeling that when I was a kid and still two weeks ago on your sofa,” she added.

Among the hundreds of people present in Memphis this Sunday for Lisa Marie Presley’s funeralwere also her friend Sarah Ferguson, as well as singers Alanis Morissette and Axl Rose.