Elvis Presley’s greatest love has revealed some emotional, never-before-heard stories about her life at Graceland during Elvis Week 2025.
During the fan event Elvis: An Author’s Perspective, Linda Thompson shared untold secrets from her life at Graceland as the King of Rock and Roll’s girlfriend. The couple were in a relationship from 1972 through 1976.
She revealed that at his core, Presley was a “deeply feeling, empathetic person.” She told fans at the event he loved sad songs and had a favorite saying, “There is great joy in sadness. Because it carves into the depth of your being.”
Thompson claimed that she was one of maybe “three” people who knew the king that intimately. She explained, “I knew every facet of his being. During the time I was with him, I felt I knew him better than anyone on the planet knew him.”
Much of that closeness came due to Presley’s lifestyle. He preferred the sanctity of Graceland and his upstairs quarters, where he and Thompson would read, have long, intimate discussions, and share their most personal thoughts.
“Our lives were such that we were sequestered very often. He liked his private time,” she explained.
“He was a very complicated person, but he was a simple man in many ways.”
“On one hand he could be a little angel who dropped from heaven. And in the flash of a moment, he could be the devil incarnate when he was angry. He had a flash temper like no one I’d ever known,” Thompson said of the entertainer’s personality.
However, despite being loved by millions of fans around the globe, Presley still felt lonely. Thompson addressed this duality, saying that although he liked being surrounded by family and friends, he was a “relatively lonely person in a lot of ways.”
“Even though he was surrounded by the same 13 guys all the time, and me, he would say to me, ‘Honey, you know I am an intensely lonely person.'”
“I would try to counter that with ‘Look at all these beautiful fans you have.'” He responded, “I appreciate their love, but they don’t know the real me or who he called ‘Little Elvis.’ They don’t know the little boy inside me like you do.”
Linda Thompson left Graceland and Elvis Presley for good in December 1976, despite admitting she still had a great love for the entertainer. He died eight months later, in August 1977.
Elvis Presley’s Greatest Love Shares Emotional, Never-Before-Heard Graceland Secrets first appeared on Parade on Aug 14, 2025