Priscilla Presley Worried Pregnancy Would Negatively Impact Her Marriage to Elvis, and She Had Reason to Be Concerned 

In the early stages of Priscilla Presley’s pregnancy, she worried Elvis Presley would begin to view her differently. The musician had made comments in the past about pregnant women’s looks, and Priscilla began to do everything in her power to change as little as possible. Despite her efforts, her fears had a basis in reality. Elvis started to treat her differently. 

Priscilla Presley worried about the impact of her pregnancy on her marriage

Priscilla knew she wanted children with Elvis, but when she discovered she was pregnant, she began to worry. Elvis was “ecstatic,” but Priscilla became concerned that it was too early. They’d only been married for a short time.

“I loved seeing Elvis happy, but I was still uncertain about how my unexpected pregnancy would affect our marriage,” she wrote in her book Elvis and Me. “This was supposed to have been our time alone. I wanted to be beautiful for him; instead, my debut as Elvis’ bride was going to be spoiled by a fat stomach, puffy face, and swollen feet.”

It didn’t help that Elvis frequently brought up his belief that women used pregnancy as an excuse to let themselves go. Priscilla worried any changes to her physical appearance would disgust him.

“As far as I was concerned, the less people mentioned about my looking pregnant, the better,” she wrote. “I intended to prove that a pregnant woman did not have to get fat. I wanted to refute Elvis’ claim that ‘women use the excuse of their pregnancy to let themselves go.’ Although the doctor said that a twenty-five pound gain would be fine, I immediately dropped from my normal one hundred ten pounds to one hundred.”

Elvis treated Priscilla Presley differently after her pregnancy

Despite Priscilla’s efforts, which included eating a severely restricted diet and slathering herself in cocoa butter every day, Elvis’ behavior toward her changed. When she was seven months pregnant, he asked her for a separation. They never went through with it, but he withdrew from Priscilla after she gave birth.

Priscilla explained that her motherhood had a “disquieting effect” on Elvis. He’d been extremely close to his own mother and seemed to struggle to see Priscilla in this role.

“Now I was a mother and he was uncertain how to treat me,” she wrote. “He had mentioned before we were married that he had never been able to make love to a woman who’d had a child.”

For months after she gave birth, Priscilla said Elvis did not so much as touch her. This began to weigh on Priscilla.

“I am beginning to doubt my own sexuality as a woman,” she wrote in her diary at the time. “My physical and emotional needs were unfulfilled.”

She was initially angry with Elvis when she discovered that she was pregnant

Priscilla’s concerns about her pregnancy initially manifested themselves as anger at Elvis. 

“For a few days, I was angry with Elvis,” she wrote. “Before the wedding I asked him if I should start taking birth control pills, but he had been adamantly against it.”

Her plans for travel and adventure in her first year of marriage fell apart. Elvis was excited, though, and she eventually grew to look forward to becoming a parent.