Why Navarone Garibaldi Garcia “Really Didn’t Get Along” with Half-Sister Lisa Marie Presley

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We knew musician Navarone Garibaldi Garcia had a complicated relationship with his late half-sister, Lisa Marie Presley. However, it turns out they weren’t close at all.

Garcia, the 36-year-old son of Priscilla Presley and producer Marco Garibaldi, has opened up about their sibling rift. The musician claimed in a recent interview that Lisa Marie’s alcohol use strained the bond between the famous siblings—so much that he wasn’t even invited to the private portion of her memorial service earlier this year.

Lisa Marie, the only daughter of Priscilla Presley and music icon Elvis Presley, died in January at age 54 after suffering cardiac arrest due to a small bowel obstruction.

Here’s what Garcia has revealed about his relationship with Lisa Marie and why the two didn’t get along.

The half-siblings didn’t grow up together

Garcia and Presley, who had an age gap of almost two decades, grew up in vastly different environments.

Lisa Marie was born in February 1968 and moved to Los Angeles at age 4 following her parents’ divorce. She split time with her famous parents up until her father’s unexpected death in 1977 when she was 9. By the time Garcia was born in 1987, Lisa Marie had already dropped out of high school and met her eventual first husband, Danny Keough.

Priscilla and Marco Garibaldi met in 1983 and were a couple through 2006, but Navarone was raised primarily by his mother. Garcia revealed he severed his relationship with his father in 2017.

Whereas Lisa Marie grew up in the bright spotlight of her famous rock ’n’ roll dad and felt connected to his legacy, Navarone focused on making a name for himself as a musician. He moved away from his family at age 18 to pursue his career, eventually forming and becoming a vocalist for the synth rock band Them Guns.

Garcia claims Lisa Marie’s drinking drove them apart

In February 2023, the New York Post reported that Garcia and Lisa Marie had experienced a “falling out” a couple years ago—with a family friend saying that Garcia had made and deleted a “vile social media post” about his half-sister.

But Garcia went into the specifics behind their bad blood in an October 2023 interview with Aaron Smith-Levin, who hosts the Growing Up in Scientology YouTube channel. Garcia told the host their strained relationship stemmed from Presley’s alcohol use.

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Garcia said Presley was critical of his marijuana use growing up and even had her security team follow him on a rare occasion the two were together. He also told Smith-Levin her drinking led to destructive behavior and interactions between the two.

“She would drink, and it kind of depended. She would kind of look around the room and say, ‘Ehhhh, you!’ and then she decided she was going to go off and just tell you everything that’s wrong with you and your life,” Garcia said in the interview. “I never got angry like that. I never said anything I didn’t mean when I smoked pot, but she would say really awful things to me that kinda kept us from being close when she would drink.”

Garcia hinted at their rift following Lisa Marie’s death—and didn’t attend a crucial part of her funeral

It seems as though Garcia and Presley couldn’t mend their relationship in recent years. Shortly after Presley’s death, Garcia posted a tribute to his sister on his Instagram page including a photo of the two of them together when he was a toddler. Although Garcia wrote he was “lost for words” following her death, he also hinted they weren’t on the best of terms.

“I wish things had been different between us,” he shared. “Regardless, you are my sister and I’m sending love and prayers for your journey home.”

Garcia did attend Presley’s memorial service at the famed Graceland property. However, he revealed to Smith-Levin he wasn’t invited to the private friends and family portion of the ceremony despite his close relationship with their mother, Priscilla.

But that same bond didn’t exist for Garcia and Lisa Marie. “We really didn’t get along,” he said. “I think she knew I wouldn’t have gone even if she invited me.”

The New York Post reported that Lisa Marie’s ex-husband Michael Lockwood also wasn’t initially invited but did attend as the chaperone of their two daughters, twins Harper and Finley Lockwood. Presley filed for divorce from Lockwood in 2016, setting off a years-long battle over finances and custody of the twins before their split was finalized in 2021.

Garcia is much closer to his niece, Riley Keough

Garcia is candid about his strained relationships with a number of his family members, but not all of them fall in this category. He revealed he wasn’t close with his nephew Benjamin Keough, Presley’s only son with musician and actor Danny Keough. Benjamin died by suicide in July 2020. But Garcia says he is on good terms with his niece Riley Keough, Presley and Danny’s firstborn child.

Riley—the 34-year-old star of the hit Amazon Prime series Daisy Jones & the Six—officially became the sole trustee of Lisa Marie’s estate in October, inheriting Graceland in the process. Garcia reportedly received a one-ninth share of the trust as part of a settlement agreement between Riley and his mother, Priscilla.

“(Riley’s) an angel that came from somewhere that had none of the narcissism, none of the antagonism. She’s literally like the sweetest, kindest most amazing human in the world,” Garcia said. “I love Riley. Out of my whole family, she’s pretty much the only one on my mom’s side I actually care about. And the twins too, but they still have to grow.”

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