Lisa Marie Presley Gets Joint Custody of Twins With Ex-Husband Michael Lockwood
Lisa Marie Presley has finally obtained a decision in the drawn-out custody battle over her 12-year-old twin daughters with ex-husband Michael Lockwood. Just recently, according to several reports, the 52-year-old singer and Elvis Presley progeny was granted joint custody of the two girls.
Following her 2006 marriage to Lockwood, Presley gave birth to the fraternal twins, Harper Vivienne Ann and Finley Aaron Love Lockwood, in 2008. In 2016, Presley filed for divorce from the fellow musician and record producer. But the couple's custody situation regarding their children together only came to a head over the past few months. It started over the summer in Los Angeles Superior Court, as MyNewsLA reported.
As the custody proceedings progressed, the tragic July death of Benjamin Keough, Presley's 27-year-old son from another marriage, also played into it. Per the Daily Mail, Lockwood argued that the death of her only son could send Presley back into drug and alcohol abuse. (Presley also has another daughter, the 31-year old actress and model Riley Keough, with ex-husband Danny Keough.)
"Lisa Marie Presley's son shot and killed himself in her home (Although she was not there at the time)," Lockwood states in court documents. "With all due sympathy and respect, this creates a new and unaddressed twofold problem: the safety of the children and the greater likelihood of [Presley] to relapse into drug and alcohol dependency."
There was also the matter of firearms that Presley purportedly kept in her home. That, combined with the fallout of Benjamin's death, prompted Lockwood to seek full custody of his two children with Presley.
"The children told (him) that (LMP) walked around the house with a gun in her hand in 2017," Lockwood's statement continues. "There was at least one gun on the premises of her home at the time of her son's suicide and it is unclear where the gun was kept or whether Finley and/or Harper might have access to this gun or others. Thus, there is a significantly higher risk to the safety of the children which would ordinarily justify 100 percent physical custody to (me) at this time in such circumstances."
According to a final judgment, however, the court found that the couple's squabbling likely affected the children more than Presley's personal issues. Barring an unexplained "medical emergency" the singer suffered in November, as reported by The Sun, a judge found that Presley's health has since turned around. That led to the decision of joint custody to be shared by Presley and Lockwood.
"The court finds that the conflict between the parties and their communication difficulties have had a detrimental (effect on) the children's best interests," declares Justice Dianna J. Gould-Saltman, according to Showbiz CheatSheet. The judge adds that Presley, "during the relevant times, was so abusing drugs that her ability to interpret and recall events accurately was distorted and untrustworthy. It is to her credit that she has since overcome her addiction."
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