Priscilla Presley’s Claims That Elvis Was a Drug Addict Are ‘Disgusting,’ Says Cousin: He ‘Was Not’

Elvis Presley’s first cousin Donna Presley is done staying silent.

The 85-year-old — who is the daughter of Elvis’ aunt Nashval Presley Pritchett — released a seven-minute video on her official YouTube channel titled “Donna Presley SLAMS Priscilla’s Lies” in September immediately following the release of Priscilla Presley’s memoir Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis.

In the video, she calls out Elvis’ ex-wife, claiming that the 80-year-old businesswoman has “continued to stain the name of this family.”

Donna takes issue with a slew of things Priscilla has said throughout the years and in her latest book, including claims that Elvis was a drug addict before his death at age 42 in 1977.

“Her recent book repeats falsehoods,” Donna claimed in the YouTube rant. “I reject her claim that Elvis had drug addiction issues. For Priscilla to make [that] accusation, it is not only false, it is disgusting. The public should remember that from 1973 until Elvis’ death in 1977, Priscilla was not living at Graceland.”

“She cannot speak with authority about those final years. Elvis was not an addict,” Donna insisted. “He would not be able to maintain his life. He would not have been able to maintain all the many wonderful and fabulous things and incredible things that he did that are still touching people today 48 years after his death.”

“He was surrounded daily by his father, his grandmother, and our family within the home,” Donna explained. “He could not and would not have lived such a life.”

In Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis, Priscilla describes Elvis’ alleged drug use and opened up further about the topic during a sit-down on CBS Sunday Morning, explaining that he was often prescribed drugs that were legal but dangerous and enabling.

When asked if there was anyone who could convince Elvis to stop using, Priscilla responded, “No. You couldn’t convince Elvis of anything, unless he believed in it.”

She noted that the drugs Elvis allegedly used were given to him by doctors — and that it was going on for years.

“He had taken them for a long time before I even met him,” she alleged. “Even in Germany, when I met him, he was already taking uppers and downers and sleeping pills because he could not sleep.”

She said that Elvis would be able to get “anything he wanted” from doctors, adding: “He was Elvis. You’re not going to say no to Elvis.”

In Donna’s video, Elvis’ cousin concluded: “Elvis deserves to be remembered in truth, not in scandal.”