Nicolas Cage and Lisa Marie Presley’s turbulent romance has gained fresh attention following revelations in Priscilla Presley’s new memoir. The book, titled Softly As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, reveals shocking details about the couple’s explosive relationship during the early 2000s.
The actor and Elvis Presley’s daughter met in 2000 at a party, where Cage said he was “thunderstruck” by Lisa Marie. Despite both being in relationships at the time, they began dating after Cage divorced Patricia Arquette. Their romance was marked by constant breakups and reconciliations that Priscilla described as “dizzying.”
According to Priscilla’s memoir, obtained by InStyle, the most dramatic incident occurred during a sailing trip off Catalina Island on Cage’s yacht, the Weston. When the couple got into one of their “epic fights,” Lisa Marie pulled off her six-carat, $65,000 diamond engagement ring and threw it at Cage. “Furious, Nick threw the ring overboard,” Priscilla wrote in her book. The actress immediately regretted his actions and hired divers to search for the expensive piece of jewelry, but the ring was never found.
Cage replaces lost ring with bigger diamond
Two days after the incident, Cage purchased an even more expensive replacement ring for Lisa Marie. The new engagement ring featured a 10-carat natural fancy light yellow diamond, significantly larger than the original six-carat stone that now sits at the bottom of the ocean near Catalina Island.
10. Nicolas Cage and Lisa Marie Presley: 3 months
— 5-Minute Crafts (@5m_crafts) November 29, 2024
Actor Nicolas Cage and singer Lisa Marie Presley got married in Hawaii in 2002 on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Presley's father's death. Cage bought Presley an engagement ring with a 6-carat yellow diamond priced at $65,000.… pic.twitter.com/oDcKYasm94
Priscilla noted in her memoir that despite liking Cage from the beginning, she recognized both he and her daughter shared explosive tempers. “They screamed and yelled, they threw things and sometimes they broke things,” she wrote. “When it was good, it was very, very good. And when it was bad, it was horrid.”
The couple’s pattern of breaking up and making up continued until they married in Hawaii on August 10, 2002, choosing the 25th anniversary of Elvis’s death for their wedding date. However, their marriage lasted only 107 days before Cage filed for divorce in November 2002.
Lisa Marie later admitted the marriage was a mistake, telling reporters she was sad about the divorce but acknowledged they “shouldn’t have been married in the first place.” The divorce was finalized in May 2004. Lisa Marie Presley died in January 2023 at age 54, and the original $65,000 engagement ring remains lost at sea, serving as a symbol of their passionate but ultimately doomed relationship.
