Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley, was reportedly inducted into the Church of Scientology as a young girl in the 1970s. She remained in the religion until 2014 when she announced a clean break from the group.
After that, she hit out at the group. Lisa Marie confessed at the time: “I was slowly starting to self-destruct. They were taking my soul, my money, my everything.”
Speaking in an interview with Tony Ortega, Lisa Marie accused the religion’s leader, David Miscavige, of “taking advantage” of her family’s money. (Via Marca.com)
She went on: “At 25, after I got the inheritance [from Elvis’ death], they started grooming me to be this person who would go out and get everyone else in.”
As a result, she was brought into the inner circles of Scientology and met some of Hollywood’s elites who were involved in the group as well. Included in this list was one of the world’s biggest action stars of all time: Tom Cruise.
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Tom is still one of the biggest names involved within the Church of Scientology.
And, although he’s a big player in that world, Lisa Marie did not get on well with him. In fact, she admitted that her disdain for the actor was so powerful that she refused to see him again.
She said: “I f****ng hate Tom. I met him 20 years ago. I said I never want to be in a room with him again.”
On top of frustrating Lisa Marie, she claimed the Scientologists attempted to bring her husband at the time into the group, Michael Jackson.
Lisa Marie married Michael in May 26, 1994, and remained with him until August 20, 1996. During this time, Lisa Marie claimed, the Scientologists tried to recruit Michael.
Eventually, though, they changed their minds. “But then they realised he was getting too much bad press,” she said.
Lisa Marie was not the only member of Scientology who reportedly clashed with Tom over the years. Grease actor John Travolta apparently had a run-in with the star over their positions in the sect.
A former bodyguard for the Church, Brendan Tighe, said that John Travolta, also wasn’t a fan of Tom.
“It’s no secret that Cruise and Travolta despised each other,” Tighe said. “Travolta wasn’t invited to Cruise’s wedding with Katie Holmes, it told me everything.”
Things got worse when Tom was awarded Scientology’s Freedom Medal of Valor in 2008, making John extremely “jealous”.
Lisa Marie later confirmed in 2014: “John [Travolta] is my last Scientology friend. Kelly [Preston] kind of monitors us. John and I get unruly if we’re together. John is renting my house in Hawaii right now.”
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