Lisa Marie Presley’s Marriage to Nicolas Cage Was Short But Memorable
It’s easy to forget that at one point, actor Nicolas Cage and singer Lisa Marie Presley were […]
It’s easy to forget that at one point, actor Nicolas Cage and singer Lisa Marie Presley were married — let alone that they once ruled the tabloids for a period of about two years. The Con Air star and the daughter of Elvis Presley captured the whole world’s attention with their unlikely romance and their hard-partying ways. To this day, it’s hard to separate fact from fiction in their story.
Cage has not had much luck in love and has gone on to some odd matches and career fluctuations over the years. Meanwhile, Presley has become a beloved figure in the music industry by carrying on her father’s legacy and uniting the community at times. However, when the two of them became romantically entangled in the year 2000 their reputations were very different. Fans were floored by the photos of an Academy Award-winning actor and Elvis’ own daughter out on the town together.
Things between Presley and Cage were short-lived, but that does not necessarily mean they were a complete disaster. As a matter of fact, shortly after their divorce, Presley was already singing Cage’s praises and calling him a friend.
Of course, Cage has had love affairs, scandal and demons of his own over the years. His story intertwines with Presley’s at a sensitive time, and in retrospect, it is neither a surprise that they found each other nor that they broke up. Here is everything to know about Presley and Cage’s marriage.
(Photo: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Presley and Cage were together for just over two years, from some time in 2000 to 2002. At the time, Presley had recently divorce Michael Jackson and broken off a short-lived engagement to John Oszajca. She also already shared two children with her first husband, Benjamin Keough.
Cage, too had a child already, and had already been married and divorced once to Patricia Arquette. The couple broke up in November of 2002 when Cage filed for divorce. However, they did not finalize the divorce until 2004.
‘Gypsy-Spirited’
In a wide-ranging interview on CNN’s Larry King Live in 2003, Presley reflected on her relationship with Cage even as the divorce was proceeding. There, she confirmed that the two were still “very much” still friends, and pondered what had brought them together in the first place.
“It looked attractive like I could be equal,” she said. “Similar situations, similar backgrounds. So we connected, we had a great connection. We were both a bit – we’re sort of these gypsy spirited, you know, tyrannical pirates.”
‘Tyrannical Pirates’
(Photo: LUCY NICHOLSON/AFP/Getty Images)
Of course, it was that “tyrannical pirate” nature that doomed their relationship in the end, Presley thought.
“And one pirate marries another they will sink the ship basically is what it comes down to,” she said in that same interview.
“It was kind of one of those things where you marry someone hoping — I mean we’d already had — we’d been together for two years before we got married, so — it was one of those things where you’re marrying hoping that you’re going to either stabilize it or it’s going to, you know, accentuate all that was going on prior to what was problematic,” she added. “So it kind of did the latter, that’s all.”
Fame Disparity
A major strain on their relationship, Presley thought, was the disparity in their levels of fame. As King put it, “as famous as he is, he isn’t a Presley.”
“See, yes, again, that’s what’s amazing. That’s exactly what happened,” Presley said. “I was sitting outside because he was in the tabloids there was all this Elvis fascination and Elvis obsession and I — I said I can’t believe they are actually pulling it off with you now too.”
Elvis Obsession
(Photo: Getty Images/Bryan Steffy )
Along with a different tier of fame came the more specific issue of Elvis fanaticism that follows Presley wherever she goes. She admitted that that caught Cage a little off guard as their relationship took off.
“I’m dating you. And you’ve got, I don’t know, over 50 movies… [An] Academy award, amazing actor, you’re getting put off on some, as an Elvis freak because you did those, you know, whatever,” she reflected.
“He got annoyed, you know — and I got annoyed. I was like how can they — they have to make it something,” she went on. “It’s not — you know we cannot be because you’re an Elvis freak, you know, thing. Which is said about both of us, actually.”
Presley and Cage were married for a grand total of about three and a half months before she officially filed for divorce. After marrying in August, Cage was filing the divorce documents in November of 2002.
According to a report by PEOPLE at the time, they finally reached an agreement in May of 2004, when Cage’s lawyer said that they had “amicably resolved” their split.
Presley’s Other Marriages
(Photo: Philip Ramey/Corbis via Getty Images)
Presley’s first marriage came in 1988, when she got together with musician Danny Keough, who played bass guitar in her band at the time. After having two children together, they split in 1994.
Presley married Michael Jackson twenty days after her divorce from Keough. However, as some of the first high profile allegations of sexual assault were heating up, she filed for divorce less than two years later.
Presley had a very short-lived engagement to musician John Oszajca before marrying Cage. After that she married guitarist Michael Lockwood in 2006. Presley and Lockwood had twin girls, and were together for about a decade before divorcing in 2016.
Cage’s Other Marriages
(Photo: Sascha Steinbach / Stringer, Getty)
Cage has a complicated romantic history of his own. He began dating actress Christina Fulton in 1988, and they had a son in 1990. Later, he married actress Patricia Arquette in April of 1995, and the two divorced back in 2001.
Presley was Cage’s second marriage, followed by his wedding to Alice Kim in July of 2004, just two months after their divorce was finalized. Cage had another son with Kim, and stayed together until January of 2016.
In early 2019, Cage was back in the headlines for an impromptu wedding to girlfriend Erika Koike in Las Vegas. They sought an annulment four days later. Ultimately, however, they had to get a divorce in June.
