Riley Keough is a mom! Ben Smith-Petersen confirms birth of daughter in Lisa Marie Presley's memorial speech
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE: Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter Riley Keough is a mother! Presley, 54, died of a cardiac arrest on Thursday, January 12, and her memorial service was conducted at Graceland, where all the Presley family members are buried. She was laid to rest after many close friends and family paid their respects and eulogized her, and it was during Keough’s husband Ben Smith-Petersen’s speech that news of Keough’s daughter was confirmed. The pair welcomed their baby girl sometime in 2022.
People reports that Smith-Petersen gave the speech on behalf of his wife Keough, who watched, seated in the front row. Although he confirms their daughter’s birth, he does not provide any further information about the baby. Keough and Smith-Petersen have been married for eight years since 2015. They met while Keough had been shooting for 'Mad Max: Fury Road' in 2012, but did not start dating until a year later during the re-shoots in Australia.
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"I hope I can love my daughter the way you loved me, the way you loved my brother and my sisters. Thank you for giving me strength, my heart, my empathy, my courage, my sense of humor, my manners, my temper, my wildness, my tenacity. I'm a product of your heart, my sisters are a product of your heart, my brother is a product of your heart," Smith-Petersen said on behalf of his wife, about his mother-in-law.
Keough wrote an essay for Vogue Australia about the early days of her relationship with Smith-Petersen. I was just out of a relationship that I needed to recover from, so definitely wasn’t looking for anything. Ben was on set and I saw him. It had been a year, and he just felt more grown up and there was something about him. I was like, “Oh wow.” He felt so much more mature. We were in Fox Studios in Sydney. He came up to me and said, “Can I send you my music to listen to?” and I said, “Sure.” I told him, “I’m here for a month, I don’t have much to do ... maybe you could teach me to surf?”, which is hilarious, because I’m so terrified of sharks and I would never surf now.”
She then went on to add, “I decided to go to Melbourne with Abbey Lee for a few days. While we were there, I had this realization that I thought Ben was cute. I found myself wanting to text him.” She also had some heartwarming closing statements to make about her husband, saying, “My husband is such a good person. He’s calm and loyal and strong and sensitive. He’s my best friend. It’s our ninth year together and we don’t stop talking.”
“Relationships I had prior to Ben, you hit a point where maybe you don’t have as much in common with the person as you thought. And we just don’t have that. We are always talking and we’re always excited to get on the phone and chat. I love that. We’ve had some amazing big things happen, but also just the quiet moments when you’re in someone else’s presence and they make everything more joyful. At the end of the day, there is no side of me that he doesn’t know or love, and vice versa.”