Priscilla and Elvis Presley have long been heralded as one of the great celebrity romances, in spite of their divorce. Perhaps even, in part, because of their divorce; after all, the couple claimed to love one another long after they separated – with The King serenading his ex-wife with Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You as they left the divorce courts together.

As Sofia Coppola’s latest film, Priscilla, makes all too abundantly clear, the couple’s ‘great’ relationship is not one we should hold up as inspiration for our own romantic endeavours. Ever.

Billed as a faithful adaptation of Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis And Me, the film strips away the glamour we have come to associate with Elvis and his beautiful wife. Instead, it takes us back to a time before the dark eye make-up and big hair – and long before the mod-themed shift dresses, too. It takes us right back, in fact, to just before the couple’s first meeting in 1959, when Elvis, a 24-year-old rockstar, asks one of his married friends to approach a 14-year-old Priscilla and invite her to a party on his behalf. A fan of the singer – not to mention desperately bored and lonely living on the German military base – Priscilla accepts the invitation, despite her parents’ concerns. Indeed, the only reason they let their teenage daughter go along to meet Elvis in the first place is that they are promised by his aforementioned friend that Priscilla will be chaperoned by a married woman. And the rest, as they say, is history. 

The film is careful not to make any allegations or cast any judgment on Elvis’s actions, instead taking a coolly detached approach as events unfold. Anyone watching Priscilla through modern eyes, though, will no doubt be left feeling uncomfortable by the way the musician focuses on the young girl. The way he shares just enough about himself to make him sound vulnerable and in need of a friend. The way he calls her at all hours of the day. The way he showers her with compliments and affection. The way that, seemingly the very moment Priscilla has fallen for him, he abruptly breaks contact with her and returns to the US.

Elvis’s treatment of Priscilla is, let’s face it, something that many would describe in this day and age as love bombing – a term used when someone begins overwhelming another person with compliments, gifts and time to win their trust. In doing so, a love bomber hopes to convince the perceived object of their affections to commit, so that they can manipulate them. 

“Love bombing will typically come to an abrupt end when the ‘wooing’ phase ends and the person knows that you really like them; because the chase is over they may suddenly lose all attraction to you, and drop you without explanation,” dating expert Hayley Quinn previously told Stylist.

Whatever you make of Elvis’s actions, he just as abruptly reconnects with Priscilla, spirits her away to his home at Graceland and has her watched day and night by his family when he’s not there. He dresses her up like a doll, changes her hair and enrols her in a finishing school of his choice. He fails to call a doctor for her after she fails to wake from an incident of prescription drug abuse, instead allowing her to spend two days in his bedroom in a Placidyl-induced coma. He cuts her off almost entirely from her friends and family. He threatens and bullies her when she confronts him over allegations of infidelity. And, once her mental state is at an all-time low and she’s almost entirely dependent on him, he marries her.

As I say, the film makes for uncomfortable viewing – particularly for fans of Elvis Presley, many of whom have said it’s unfair of Coppola and his ex-wife to create such a film when he’s no longer around to defend himself. More, however, have dismissed the toxic elements of Elvis and Priscilla’s romance – including the age gap and power imbalance – as ‘normal’ for the era.

“Famous men always dated teenage girls back then,” reads one comment on Facebook. “It’s unfair to judge it by today’s standards.”

Here’s the thing, though: by refusing to judge problematic relationships by modern standards, we are implying that they are, to some degree, normal. That an adult celebrity using his status to pursue a minor could, depending on the circumstances, be perceived by public opinion as acceptable. That some men even deserve to be given a pass for their behaviour if they’re talented or beloved. 

It’s all too easy to assume that a relationship as problematic as Elvis and Priscilla’s is a relic of its era. Sadly, that’s not the case, as the sexual abuse allegations against the likes of R Kelly and Roman Polanski have wholeheartedly proven. As the recently released court papers connected to late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein have underlined. As countless rumoured celebrity romance after rumoured celebrity romance (Tyga famously first met Kylie Jenner at her Sweet 16 party, although it remains unclear as to when they began dating) continue to make clear.

Fame and fortune should not change the rules when it comes to dating. No adult should be given the OK when it comes to dating a young teen or minor. And, by refusing to entertain the idea of any issues regarding the relationship between Elvis and Priscilla Presley, even all these years later and with the benefit of hindsight, then we are continuing to romanticise something that is highly problematic.

Times change, as do our morals and concepts of victimhood. What was deemed acceptable in the 50s and 60s should by no means be considered as such now. And Sofia Coppola’s film serves as something of a significant milestone in an important – albeit messy and painful – revolution. Because, by encouraging us to look beyond the gloss and the glamour so synonymous with the king of rock’n’roll (even Baz Luhrman’s 2022 biopic, Elvis, presented him as a tragic romantic hero), she has helped to strip away the fantasy.

Instead, Coppola has exposed the reality of not just the Presleys’ marriage, but countless other high-profile relationships between men and young girls. And perhaps, in the process, she may help to shift societal opinion that fame and fortune somehow makes such behaviour acceptable. 

Images: A24