Why Natalie Wood Ended Her Relationship With Elvis Thanks To His Mother

It wasn’t exactly a secret that Elvis was close to his momma. Gladys was regularly referenced in articles written during the star’s rapid rise to rock and roll fame. “Doesn’t everybody love their parents?” Elvis once responded after being quizzed by the press about his family.

Elvis even put his mom on camera in the 1957 musical Loving You. During the scene where Elvis performs the track “Got a Lot o’ Livin’ to Do,” you can see Gladys acting like a crazed fan in the audience.

Wood probably wished she’d been more aware of this strangely close bond before getting to the meet-the-parents stage. But, luckily, she managed to arrange a get-out clause in the shape of a phone call from her own mother. And in the end, it was just six simple words that made up her mind.

Why were Elvis and his mom so devoted to each other? It probably had something to do with the death of Elvis’ twin brother at birth. Gladys believed that if one twin passed away, the other would inherit all their positive traits. And her faith in Elvis only strengthened when he nearly died from severe tonsillitis. His mother, who had constantly prayed by her son’s bedside during the scare, felt that his survival was a sign from God. Fate was smiling on him, and greatness was nothing less than his destiny.

The pair were inseparable, too. A few months after Elvis was born, Gladys took a job as a cotton picker. This allowed her to take her newborn with her to work. The baby was placed on a sack alongside her and dragged along whenever she moved. When he was older, Elvis would also assist his mom by removing the raw cotton from the plant stems.

And Gladys actually relied upon Elvis – both emotionally and financially – from a very young age. You see, after his father, Vernon, was imprisoned for three years for financial fraud, the future star became the dominant male presence in the house. It was a role he appeared to relish.

According to Gladys, Elvis once said, “Don't worry, Mama. When I grow up, I’m going to buy you a fine house and pay everything you owe at the grocery store and buy two Cadillacs – one for you and Daddy, and one for me.” And when he was just 19, Elvis was the only person in the Presley household making any money.

At this point, Elvis was trying to forge a career in music. And after heading into the studio to record the song “That’s All Right,” the talented teen enjoyed his first bit of radio play. Yet his mom always felt a little uneasy at the prospect of fame – even when it was restricted to local school dances.

This wariness was clear from a story recounted by The New Zealand Herald. Apparently, at one high-school performance, the crowd reached fever pitch. Gladys then proved her bodyguard credentials by physically restraining the army of young girls lunging towards her son. She reportedly demanded of the baying mob, “Why you trying to kill my boy?”

Elvis always had Gladys at the back of his mind while performing. Although he would often whip his female audience into a frenzy with his gyrating, he had a line he would never cross. The Daily Mail reported that The King once said, “I don’t think I do anything obscene on stage or anything that would embarrass my mama. I really don’t.”

But then Gladys had always been protective of her only child. She reportedly ensured that Elvis didn’t even walk to school alone until his high school years. And Elaine Dundy, author of a book about the pair’s relationship, told UPI that there was a good reason for this. “[Gladys] wanted to make sure he didn’t play hooky, and she was determined that he would be as little like Vernon as possible,” she said.

Elvis once reflected on this in an interview, admitting, “My mama never let me out of her sight. I couldn’t go down to the creek with the other kids.” And as you won’t be surprised to learn, the youngster was teased mercilessly by his peers because of this. Biographer Peter Guralnick revealed the future star was nicknamed “Mama’s Boy” because of his closeness to Gladys.

But as Elvis’ profile grew, Gladys secretly began relying on alcohol to cope. Her biggest fear was being abandoned by her son, and already the young star had to spend months away from her as his career blossomed. To mitigate this, Elvis purchased a 14-acre property called Graceland in an attempt to keep Gladys happy. Strangely, though, that actually had the opposite effect.

Gladys became tired of living in an area shut off from the rest of the world, and she found herself battling against depression. By 1958 she was even apparently referring to herself as “the most miserable woman on Earth.” And the situation got worse when the beleaguered mom learned that Elvis was being sent to Germany with the U.S. Army.

In her chat with UPI, Dundy described Graceland as Gladys’ mausoleum. The author added, “She could not do her grocery shopping. She wasn’t allowed to feed her chickens because of the image. She could see very few people. That made her morbid, and she had a morbid streak in her anyway.”

As you’d expect, Elvis was devastated when his mom passed away from heart failure in 1958. According to biographer Eric Wolfson, the singer was on the verge of collapsing multiple times during her funeral. The writer added, “Elvis was destroyed, matter-of-factly telling the local newspaper that his heart was broken.”

Another funeral guest, Elvis’ pal Judy Spreckels, backed up Wolfson’s claims. The Daily Express quoted her as saying, “I have never seen anyone as sad as Elvis was. He cried continuously. We were in the front hall at Graceland, and he stood there hugging me for a half-hour… It was the saddest thing I’d ever seen.”

Dundy believed that the pair’s similarities partly explained their closeness. She told UPI, “I think [Elvis] was very like Gladys while she was a young girl. She had rhythm. She was a great beauty. She did a wild Charleston to Jimmie Rodgers records. This prompted people to say that Elvis got it natural.”

But according to Wolfson, The King’s bond with his mom was “sweet to the point of sickly.” Not only did they communicate in a secret code, but they also used baby talk. And just when you think things couldn’t get any weirder, they had pet names for each other, too.

One message from Elvis to Gladys read, “Hi Babies. Here’s the money to pay the bills. Don’t tell no one how much I sent. Will send more next week... Love, Elvis.” And the pair’s highly unusual relationship didn’t go unnoticed by others.

Dixie Locke, the first girl to truly capture Elvis’ heart, once claimed that Gladys was far closer to her son than her husband. “I mean, it sounds weird, but they had such a strong love and respect for each other, and I don’t think there was a lot of respect for [Elvis’ father] during that time. It was almost like Elvis was the father, and his dad was just the little boy,” Locke revealed.

Even the woman Elvis married acknowledged that she would never be able to compete with his mom. And that’s despite the fact she only met The King after Gladys’ death. In her autobiography Elvis and Me, Priscilla Presley recounted the first time the star wrapped her in his arms. After that, he had immediately begun discussing his mother.

Elvis even continued with the baby talk that he’d relied upon with his late mom. Luckily, Priscilla didn’t appear to mind this particular quirk. She once told People magazine, “We would baby talk because you have to have your own language when you have that many people around. It was a good life. It was different, but it was ours.”

And if you’re wondering exactly what form this baby talk took, then wonder no more. According to reports, Elvis and his mom – then his future girlfriends and wife – referred to feet as “sooties.” They also used the word “butch” instead of milk and “iddytream” whenever they wanted ice cream.

In her 1985 autobiography, Priscilla also revealed that her and Elvis’ sex life had deteriorated once they became parents. And Elvis’ good friend Sonny West believes that The King’s relationship with his mother was to blame. In his own book, the one-time bodyguard claims that the star began to see Priscilla in the same pure light as Gladys.

Referring to his pal in Elvis: Still Taking Care of Business, West wrote, “[Gladys] gave him so much love and attention when he was growing up that he came to put all mothers on a special pedestal. The idea of sex with a mother was, to Elvis, out of the question.” But this posthumous intervention wasn’t the first time Gladys had affected her son’s love life.

In between dating Dixie and marrying Priscilla, Elvis began seeing a fellow famous face. Natalie Wood had been a Hollywood fixture ever since she had starred in Miracle on 34th Street as a youngster. The festive classic had actually been a favorite of Elvis’ as a kid, and he was apparently left starstruck when his path first crossed with the actress’.

But it turns out that Natalie had been just as intrigued by her new beau. The star had asked to be introduced to the hip-swiveling singer by Dennis Hopper, her co-star in the classic movie Rebel Without a Cause. And she was left mightily impressed with Elvis’ conduct during their early courtship.

In a 2018 chat with Closer, Lana Wood, Natalie’s sister, revealed that Elvis went above and beyond on one particular date. She said, “To go to the movies, he bought out the theater.” And Lana claimed that her sibling wasn’t used to being spoiled in such a manner by a man.

Things looked to be getting serious, too, when Elvis asked Natalie to accompany him on a trip back home to Memphis. Sadly, though, the family get-together proved to be the catalyst for the young couple’s break-up. And it was Gladys’ behavior that made Natalie realize she didn’t want to be The King’s queen.

According to Ray Connolly, who wrote the book Being Elvis: A Lonely Life, things got off to a bad start almost immediately. And one of the guest’s sartorial choices was apparently to blame. He told Closer, “Natalie wore a very flimsy nightgown around the house. Gladys was like, ‘Not in my house!’”

This instant animosity appeared to be mutual. Natalie was particularly disturbed by the mollycoddling way in which Gladys treated her very grown-up son. And the actress’ sister claims that six words uttered by Elvis’ mother proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Lana recounted, “His mother said something like, ‘Come and sit on Mama’s lap.’ They were very affectionate, and it bothered Natalie. She called and asked our mom to make up a story about why she had to come home.” We don’t particularly blame Natalie for making such a swift exit.

In her own memoir, Lana recalled that Natalie had actually called her first. Her sister also apparently said, “Gladys has wrecked everything. I don’t have a chance. Get me out of this, and fast.” The pair then concocted a plan that would involve their mother ringing Natalie and asking her to come back home because of a pretend emergency.

Natalie was supposed to have stayed with Elvis and his parents in Memphis for a week. In the end, she lasted just two days! And there was no love lost between the pair following Natalie’s sudden getaway. The actress apparently once told Lana, “He can sing, but he can’t do much else.”

Connolly also confirmed that Natalie always remained glad she’d given one of the most famous men in the world the heave-ho. He told Closer, “There were people that she idolized. Elvis was not one of them.” Meanwhile, the “Blue Suede Shoes” singer supposedly dubbed Natalie “Mad Nat” for her apparent anger issues.

Natalie didn’t waste any time in moving on, either. In 1957 she wed Robert Wagner – a man eight years her senior. Natalie had developed a crush on her fellow actor when she had been just ten, and she reportedly informed her mom that she was destined to be his bride. Sadly, her dream-come-true marriage lasted only a little under four years the first time around. And though she remarried Wagner ten years on from their 1962 divorce, that second coupling would notoriously end in tragedy.

Elvis, on the other hand? He waited a little longer to walk down the aisle, getting hitched to Priscilla in 1967. But he certainly wasn’t short of female company before that. Following his brief dalliance with Natalie, The King developed a reputation as something of a playboy. Candace Bergen, Connie Stevens, and Cybill Shepherd were reportedly just a few of his conquests.

As you can imagine, Elvis’ playboy reputation didn’t go unnoticed by his doting young bride. And it wasn't long before whispers began to spread of another lady in The King’s life. As the rumors swirled, he insisted that nothing was going on. But could he be trusted to tell the truth?

Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s love affair is remembered as one of the greats. But as it turns out, Priscilla wasn’t the only woman on the scene, even after they’d tied the knot. This secret lover was one of Elvis’ co-stars. And a rediscovered interview has finally revealed what really went on inside their covert romance on and off the screen.

Said woman is stunning Swedish actress Ann-Margret. Incidentally, she had been associated with Elvis long before the two of them even met. At the beginning of her singing career, you see, she had been marketed as a feminine version of Elvis – due to their similar vocal qualities. And this led to Ann-Margret working with Elvis’ very own backup singers, the Jordanaires, even releasing a cover of his smash hit “Heartbreak Hotel.”

It seems, then, that Elvis and Ann-Margret were destined to meet. And this is exactly what happened in 1963, when the pair were cast together in the movie Viva Las Vegas. Ann-Margret was a rising star by that time, having already enjoyed a massive hit with musical comedy Bye Bye Birdie. But Elvis was still the more established of the two, with Viva Las Vegas being his 14th film.

In Ann-Margret’s autobiography, Ann-Margret: My Story, which came out in 1994, she remembered her first meeting with the King of Rock ’n’ Roll. The actress recalled of the encounter, “Except for a piano, the MGM soundstage where Elvis and I met was empty. In the background, a few of his guys hung around observing their boss – a ritual I would soon come to expect.”

Apparently, Director George Sidney introduced Ann-Margret to Elvis as “a wonderful young lady.” The Swedish star wrote, “The significance was lost on Elvis and me. I reached out my hand, and he shook it gently. ‘I’ve heard a lot about you,’ we said at the same time, which made us laugh and broke the ice.”

This first encounter was, in its own way, a meet-cute. “I’m not really sure why I was so calm about meeting ‘the King,’” Ann-Margret admitted. “After all, this was Elvis – a man who had captured the heart of almost every woman in America. Little did I know he would soon capture mine.”

As filming on Viva Las Vegas commenced, the media noted how much time Elvis and Ann-Margret were spending together. Rumors subsequently swirled about a possible romance. But Elvis was already taken – or at least he was supposed to be. After all, the famous singer was still involved with Priscilla, and he’d even intimated to the young woman’s family that he would eventually marry her.

Interestingly, the 1994 biography Elvis and the Memphis Mafia sheds some light on Elvis’ apparent fondness for both Priscilla and Ann-Margret. One of the book’s authors, Elvis’ close friend Marty Lacker, revealed, “I knew Elvis had to make a decision between them. And I thought if push came to shove, he would choose Ann.”

Meanwhile, Elvis’ cousin Billy Smith also contributed to the book. He divulged, “My personal desire was for Elvis to marry Ann. She made his life easier because she understood him and didn’t make any demands on him. She even understood his need for [his friends, the Memphis Mafia]. Priscilla never understood that.”

According to Lacker, Ann-Margret wasn’t pleased when Elvis went back to Priscilla. He recalled a moment when he met the actress on the street, and she asked him, “What the hell is wrong with your boss? One minute we’re in love, and the next minute I don’t hear from him again. He won’t even take my calls.”

Priscilla was also furious at the situation. Indeed, in 1985 she wrote a revealing piece for People magazine titled “He Saved Me for So Long.” In it, she wrote that even after filming on Viva Las Vegas finished, “the problem was that his life still included Ann-Margret… the newspapers were reporting their ‘blossoming’ affair daily.”

And one day, Elvis brought Priscilla some infuriating news about the other woman. “Elvis returned from the studio one afternoon, carrying a newspaper and fuming. ‘I can’t believe she did it.’” Priscilla wrote. “He flung the paper against the wall in disgust. ‘She had the goddamn nerve to announce we’re engaged.’”

“Every major newspaper in America’s picked it up,” Elvis told Priscilla. “The rumor’s spread like a disease. Honey, I’m gonna have to ask you to leave. The press will be hanging around and following me all over for a statement.” Priscilla reacted with rage and flung a vase across the room, screaming out her dislike for Ann-Margret.

Elvis apparently responded violently to this. According to Priscilla, he grabbed her and flung her onto the couple’s bed. Then, he snapped at her, “Look, damn it! I didn’t know this was going to get out of hand. I want a woman who’s going to understand that things like this might just happen. Are you going to be her – or not?”

Yet despite everything, Elvis and Priscilla eventually married in May 1967. However, there were rumors that this had only happened because of the considerable and questionable age gap between them. Indeed, when Elvis and Priscilla had first met back in 1959, he was 24 years old and she’d been a mere 14.

“Our vows were taken and we were now husband and wife,” Priscilla wrote in her People piece. “I remember flashbulbs popping, my father’s congratulations and my mother’s tears of happiness. Mrs. Elvis Presley. It had a different ring, a nicer sound than previous labels such as ‘constant companion,’ ‘teen heartthrob,’ ‘live-in Lolita,’ ‘lover.’”

Things were far from perfect between the couple, however. Even after Priscilla became pregnant with Elvis’ child, she still had to deal with tales about him and yet another woman. This time, it was Nancy Sinatra. “I was quick to cry,” Priscilla remembered. “Elvis assured me that I was just being oversensitive because of my condition. I agreed.”

“Six months into my pregnancy Nancy called and said she’d like to give me a baby shower,” Priscilla continued. “I didn’t know her that well and thought it a little strange that she was so accommodating. But Elvis assured me that she was very nice and that I should get to know her. Nancy was very friendly and very supportive. I found that I liked her and I decided to ignore the rumors.”

There were other problems, however. When Priscilla was heavily pregnant, Elvis announced he wanted a trial separation. “I wanted to die,” Priscilla admitted. “I was seven months along and could not believe what I was hearing. I don’t think Elvis really intended to leave me. It wasn’t his style.”

“I later realized he had questions about how a baby would affect his life,” Priscilla added. “Would his public accept him as a father? He wasn’t even sure if his fans had adapted to his becoming a husband. How loyal would they be? Within a short time Elvis’ sensitive nature brought him back to his senses. Two days had passed. The idea of a trial separation was never mentioned again.”

Meanwhile, Ann-Margret got hitched to somebody else. In Elvis and the Memphis Mafia, Marty Lacker mused, “The same month Elvis married Priscilla, Ann married Roger Smith. I read in her book that she and Roger announced their engagement in ’66. But she also said they split up in March of ’66, and they got back together after that. I think that only happened because she didn’t know what to do about Elvis. She was really, really in love with him.”

Despite their separate marriages, though, Elvis and Ann-Margret were still close. In the summer of 1967, one month after the Elvis-Priscilla wedding, Ann-Margret debuted in Las Vegas. Elvis gifted her a guitar made entirely out of flowers to congratulate her… and, what’s more, he kept on doing so. Indeed, Ann-Margret received plenty more flowers from him as her career continued.

However, in August 1977, as Ann-Margret began a new show in Vegas, no flowers arrived. The following day, she discovered why. Elvis had passed away at the age of 42 in his bathroom. A serious drug habit had contributed to his death.

By that point, Elvis and Priscilla had divorced. She’d split with him towards the end of 1973, in fact, although they had joint custody of their daughter Lisa Marie. Priscilla was naturally one of the people who attended Elvis’s funeral – and Ann-Margret was also there, even though she’d been advised not to go.

It wasn’t until many years later, though, that Ann-Margret gave her in-depth interview about Elvis. In 1994, the same year she released her book, she spoke to journalist Charlie Rose. And she became emotional as she discussed the man, now dead and gone, who’d had such a massive impact on her life.

Charlie Rose told Ann-Margret, “It seems that there was about the two of you, kindred souls, something deep inside that you both knew that you both had. And it’s almost now as if you were trying to protect that.” The actress answered, “Oh yes, it was extremely special. It was very strong.”

“We went together for one year, and he trusted me, and I do not want to betray his trust even in death,” Ann-Margret continued. “I knew him very, very well.” Asked what she meant, the actress said, “There’s been so much written that has been negative about him, I want to celebrate his life, the man that I knew.”

Ann-Margret then added, “[Elvis] was so gifted. And it makes me extremely angry that all of a sudden all these people who made fun of him right near his death, all of a sudden posthumously right after he passed on, were writing reams and reams of stories about him, how gifted he was. Why didn’t they do that when he was alive?”

From there, Ann-Marget moved onto other themes. “I just cherish his memory, and so did my father and my mom and my friends,” she said. “And I remember the good times that we had, and his generosity.” In addition, she told Rose that Elvis wasn’t just kind to her, but also to everybody in her life.

“He was just so sensitive and considerate and he knew about honor, and respecting your elders, and manners and being civilized,” Ann-Margret added. “He loved his family, loved his parents, he loved his little daughter so much. There never will be anyone else like him. He’s an American original.”

In the interview, Rose also brought up Ann-Margret’s “extraordinary” relationship with her husband Roger Smith, star of 77 Sunset Strip. He asked her if Smith was the love of her life, and she answered “Yes.” Indeed, Ann-Margret and Smith would remain together until he passed away, aged 84, in the summer of 2017.

After that interview, Ann-Margret more or less stopped speaking about her relationship with Elvis. In an October 2013 interview, the New York Post asked the actress “What was Elvis like?” and she answered, “He was great. He teased me all the time. You know what? I really don’t talk about him, because it’s very private, what we had.”

Nonetheless, other people have talked about the relationship. For example, in 2017 television personality and Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz, who’d once interviewed Ann-Margret, spoke to Fox News about the sad love story between the two stars. He said, “Ann-Margret does not discuss Elvis, and not because she bears him any ill will.”

“Quite to the contrary, she is very eager to protect Elvis’ legacy and she thinks, correctly, that the media and others... sort of pick away at his legacy because we’re so desperate for information on him,” Mankiewicz continued. “And I suspect she thinks his career was mishandled by [his manager] Colonel Tom Parker.”

“A read of her autobiography – and she wrote it – makes it pretty clear that they were in love,” the TV host explained. “She doesn't say it in so many words, but she says it in enough words. And they clearly meant a great deal to each other. They loved each other. It probably couldn’t last. But they had a real meaningful connection with each other.”

“They understood each other. They both come from small towns, they both loved motorcycles. And they both were uncomfortable in their spotlight of Hollywood,” Mankiewicz added. “And I think that’s what connected them to each other during the duration of Elvis’ life… I think my understanding of it is we should all be so lucky to have a friendship that’s as meaningful as the one between Ann-Margret and Elvis Presley.”

Ann-Margret is in her late 70s now, and she lost her husband, of course, but she’s still working. In 2014 she was in the television show Ray Donovan. And then in 2018 she joined the cast of Happy! on the Syfy network and featured in The Kominsky Method. She also still does movies occasionally.

Even though Ann-Margret will no longer speak about Elvis, the book Elvis and the Memphis Mafia provides an invaluable insight into that period of their lives. In it, Billy Smith recalled, “She had a slot machine made for him. Instead of cherries or jokers, it had three guitars that lined up for the jackpot. They’ve got it in the basement at Graceland.”

“I’d heard he even proposed to her, after she was already married to Roger,” Smith also recollected. “But in her book, she doesn’t exactly say that. She just says he came backstage and got down on one knee and told her he still felt the same way he always had.” Even if there really was a proposal, Ann-Margret obviously didn’t accept it.

Elvis’ buddy Marty Lacker had the last words in that chapter of the book. “[Ann-Margret] used to write him letters and sign them ‘Bunny’ or ‘Thumper,’” he stated. “And she’d call Graceland and use the same code. If Elvis had ended up with Thumper, this whole story might have ended differently.”