Lisa Marie Presley’s ex, Michael Lockwood, accused her of using Scientology’s ‘Fair Play’ practice
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Lisa Marie Presley’s ex-husband accused her of using Scientology against him in a bitter court filing two weeks before his death.
Michael Lockwood, 61, said Presley, with whom he shares twin daughters, was using “fair play” tactics to thwart his attempts to make her pay $40,000 a month in child support.
He said Fair Game meant that ‘any enemy can be lied to, tricked, cheated or destroyed by any means without discipline’ and Presley, who renounced Scientology, was unfurling it on him.
Lockwood wrote that he had spent $1 million in legal fees fighting Presley and that he might have to file for bankruptcy due to the strain on his finances.
The presentation provides a new perspective on the pressures that Presley, 54, the only daughter of Elvis Presley, faced in her final weeks.
Michael Lockwood and Lisa Marie Presley married in 2006 and had twin daughters in 2008, before separating in 2016 in a bitter divorce. They are photographed in 2015.
In court papers filed last month, Lockwood, now bearded, demanded that Presley pay $40,000 a month in child support and claimed he was hiding his assets. He is pictured immediately after Lisa Marie’s death.
The former couple share twin 14-year-old daughters, Finley and Harper, who are said to be very traumatized by the sudden passing of their mother. Photographed in 2017
Presley died last Thursday after going into cardiac arrest at the $4 million Calabasas home she shared with her first husband, Danny Keough. Her 14-year-old twins, Finley and Harper Lockwood, and her daughter Riley Keough, 33, refuse to return because they are so traumatized by her death.
A funeral will be held Sunday at Graceland, Elvis Presley’s estate in Memphis, Tennessee. She was buried on the grounds next to her son Benjamin, who committed suicide in 2020, on Thursday.
Lockwood, a musician who was Presley’s fourth husband, lost his 2016 divorce bid to undo their prenup but reopened the case in 2021.
In court documents, he demanded that she pay $40,000 a month in child support and claimed she was hiding her assets.
The latest filing was added to the court docket in Los Angeles on December 28 when Lockwood accused Presley of using “shell companies” to hide his assets.
He alleged that she failed to provide basic financial documentation so that a forensic accountant he had hired could assess her actual wealth.
Lockwood, who has custody of the twins, included a bill from his lawyers Yanny & Smith for $48,000 to show how expensive the battle with Presley had been.
He wrote: ‘I’ve had to change lawyers more than three times, and I still owe my previous lawyers my bills that I don’t know how I’ll be able to pay and may have to pay off in bankruptcy.
‘With this story, I have incurred over a million dollars in legal fees. I have incurred in excess of $400-500 thousand dollars simply fighting the malicious, frivolous and false allegations against me both in dependency court and before this court.
This is exactly what the petitioner has tried to do. She put me in debt, slandered me, tried to take my children from me, and now is when I am finally restoring my name and relationship with my children after many years of alienation and ‘fair play’ tactics.
Lisa Marie claimed in 2017 that she discovered “disturbing and inappropriate photographs of children on Lockwood’s computer.”
“I was shocked, horrified and sick to my stomach. I understand that the Tennessee police are also conducting an investigation related to the photos and videos I discovered.
Lockwood was never charged.
The twins were briefly placed in the care of the California Department of Children and Family Services before Lisa Marie’s mother, Priscilla, took them in.
Lisa Marie’s last public appearance was at the Golden Globes just two days before her death.
“The backyard of Graceland is basically a graveyard,” Lisa Marie told Playboy in 2003. She is now buried next to her father, grandparents and son.
Lockwood accused Presley of employing Scientology “fair play” tactics, meaning that “an enemy may be lied to, deceived, deceived, or destroyed by any means.”
Lockwood, who has custody of the twins, included a bill from his attorneys Yanny & Smith for $48,000 to show how expensive it had been to fight Presley.
Lockwood said Presley was raised in a “particular belief system,” a thinly veiled reference to the Scientology he joined at age 11 and left in 2014.
Presley turned against belief and was expected to be the star witness in the new rape trial of That 70s Show star and Scientologist Danny Masterson.
Lockwood wrote: “It is inevitable that she still holds some of the beliefs of that belief system, especially the practice of ‘Fair Play’, which includes attacking ‘enemies’ by ruining reputations and engaging in other unethical behaviour.”
‘According to the practice of ‘Fair Play,’ an ‘enemy can be tricked, tricked, or destroyed by any means without discipline.’
“I believe this is exactly what (Presley) has done to me during our legal proceedings with the willing help of his current attorney.”
In an interview, Leah Remini, the actress and former Scientologist who has become one of the religion’s most vocal critics, said that “fair play” was carried out by her Office of Special Affairs.
She said that the office was “dedicated to anyone who would tell the truth about Scientology” and that Fair Gaming “says that anyone who speaks out against Scientology must be Fair Game, and that means being completely destroyed.”
This can be physically and mentally and means “finding out what that person seeks to protect and going after it, you can cost him his reputation, his job, his family,” Remini said.
Lockwood accused his ex-wife of using “fair play,” tactics allegedly used by the Church of Scientology against critics, as they fought over custody of their twin boys, pictured here in 2011.
Lockwood said Presley was raised in a “particular belief system,” a thinly veiled reference to the Scientology he joined at age 11 and left in 2014.
Presley leaves behind three grieving daughters, Riley, 33, and twins Finley and Harper, 14, after she died suddenly at age 54.
Court documents filed in the case last November revealed that Presley was spending more than $92,000 a month before his death and owed the IRS $1 million after squandering his father’s $100 million fortune.
Presley earned more than $100,000 a month from his father’s estate and business, but spent more than $92,000 a month.
Her monthly expenses include $23,500 in rent and $1,078 for a Maserati car.
The documents show Presley had $95,266 in cash, $714,775 in stocks and bonds, and owed $1 million to the IRS.
With his full value minus his debts, he was estimated to be worth $4 million.
Such was the precarious state of his finances that at one point he was $16 million in debt due to disastrous deals made by his business manager Barry Siegel. That included $10 million owed to the IRS.
Presley was married to actor Keough, the father of Riley, Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage before Lockwood.
She was left with all of her father’s estate in his will when he died in 1977, aged 42, and took control of the trust in 1993 when she turned 25.