#this might be the messiest thing elvis ever did 😭

[doll-elvis]

Did Elvis really have an affair with his stepbrother's wife? Did others in his entourage corroborate the claim? If so, what time frame did it take place?

thank you for the ask!!

and whew this whole story is a MESS and I have to say I am normally a huge Elvis defender in the sense that I always try to understand his point of view and his reasons for doing things but honestly… he was dead wrong in this particular situation 😭

and this has indeed been corroborated by the MM, however they do incorrectly refer to her as Angie (who was actually David Stanley’s wife) when in reality her name was Annie. Elvis and Annie had a month-long affair in 1972 when Annie was 18-years-old

** an important note is that his affair with Annie happened soon after Elvis was made aware of Priscilla’s affair with Mike Stone and I cannot help but think that his affair with Annie was a reaction to the news about Priscilla and Mike (more on that below 👀)

also I have found that the actual degree of the affair is something that is inconsistent across bases, and I attribute that to Elvis likely minimizing the relationship as to relieve himself of the guilt/blame when telling other people in the group

which we know is something that he often did, particularly when he was caught by his main partner, like Priscilla or Linda, when he was being unfaithful: “it didn’t mean anything”, “I just needed something different company”, “she was just a friend”

or like the time he placed all the blame on George Klein after he was caught with another woman by Linda… even though he was asking George to set him up with dates ⬇️

“‘Damn Elvis—why’d you tell Linda it was all my fault? I just did what you asked me to do’. ‘I know, GK,’ he said with a little smile. ‘But somebody had to take the blame and it wasn’t going to be me’.”

excerpt from “Elvis: my best man” by George Klein

I initially found Elvis’ affair with Annie incredibly hard to believe. Elvis was a very moral man when it came to things like that and I just couldn’t see a scenario in which he would sleep with the wife of somebody he knew… let alone his literal stepbrother. And even the Memphis Mafia confirmed that in the 50s, Elvis had a very strict “no married women” policy, not even just for himself but for his whole group ⬇️

But it seems like as he grew older and experienced more of all the world had to offer, his morals changed. In the 60s he had no problem with checking out or flirting with married women ⬇️

LAMAR FIKE: “Nothing was sacred. Nora, my wife, bent over one time feeding one of the kids and Elvis looked up her dress. I said ‘What the hell are you doing?’ And he said, ‘Well, she’s bent over, what do you want me to do?’. He was so funny about it, I couldn’t get mad”

excerpt from “Elvis and the Memphis Mafia” by Alanna Nash

pictured left to right: Patsy Presley, Joanie Esposito, Priscilla Presley, Nora Fike

In the 70s, Elvis went from looking at “taken” women to sleeping with them, and just like in the 60s it didn’t matter who the women was with… even if she was with a friend like Jerry Schilling (poor Jerry 😭) ⬇️

excerpt from “Elvis: What Happened” by Red & Sonny west, and Dave Hebler

And as mentioned before, in 1972 (right after Elvis learned about Priscilla’s affair with Mike Stone), Elvis began seeing Annie Stanley

This has been confirmed by Billy Smith, Sonny West and Marty Lacker, along with Billy, Rick and Dee Stanley ⬇️

Billy Smith speaking on the situation, excerpt is from “Elvis and the Memphis Mafia” by Alanna Nash

And while Billy Stanley says that Annie admitted she was having sex with Elvis, Billy Smith says that Elvis told him that he only ever talked/preached to Annie. This is where the degree of the affair seems to be inconsistent but again, I believe Elvis was lessening the degree in order to relieve himself of any blame/guilt ⬇️

BILLY SMITH: “I don’t know if he had sex with her, he led everybody to believe he did. I didn’t talk to him about it until maybe ‘75. I flat out asked him. Elvis told me they didn’t do anything. He said they just talked, and he preached to her a little bit

MARTY LACKER: “I was thinking about Elvis and Angie (Annie was her correct name), and somehow Elvis knew that. He kind of glanced over at Billy Stanley, and then looked at me and he said, “Well, it ain’t like he’s my brother”

excerpts are from “Elvis and the Memphis Mafia” by Alanna Nash

As always be wary of the Stanleys as they are not the most credible sources, particularly Dee, but this is their recollection of the affair ⬇️

excerpt is from “Elvis, we love you tender” by the Stanleys

excerpt is from “Elvis, we love you tender” by the Stanleys

I find the first sentence of this excerpt above particularly interesting, “what Mike Stone did to Elvis, he, in turn did to Billy”

Take this with a grain of salt because I’m of course not Elvis so I cannot speak on why he did the things he did but I often wonder since Elvis was so hurt by Priscilla’s infidelity… was he trying to “spread” that hurt by ruining his own stepbrother’s marriage 🤧?

And it’s known that Elvis was insecure about his pending divorce with Priscilla as it would be the first in the history of his family, and so again, was he trying to ruin another family member’s marriage?

Or was it because Elvis’ ego was bruised by Priscilla leaving him for a “lesser” man in the sense that Mike wasn’t as rich or famous, and so was Elvis trying to prove to himself that he could get a “better” woman in the sense that Annie was younger, less worldly, than Priscilla?

this is all speculation but I’m just so interested to know if there was a deeper meaning behind this affair or if Elvis was just trying to get laid lmaoo😭

excerpt is from “Elvis, we love you tender” by the Stanleys

This excerpt above is where Annie admits out of anger that she did indeed sleep with Elvis. So it is kind of case of “he said, she said” as Elvis maintains that they didn’t sleep together whereas she says that they did…

if that argument between Annie and Billy truly did happen, I would probably lean towards believing Annie over Elvis. I cannot imagine why she would admit to sleeping with Elvis if it hadn’t truly happened, and knowing that by admitting it, it could be the end of her marriage

excerpt is from “Elvis, we love you tender” by the Stanleys

I’m not a fan of the Stanleys but after reading this excerpt I truly felt horrible for Billy. I couldn’t imagine the amount of betrayal he felt from both Elvis and Annie, and then for Elvis to be so cavalier at the prospect of the potential divorce, it’s all just sad

However I don’t think Elvis was being so cavalier out of cruelty, I really do believe that Elvis felt incredibly guilt and deeply regretted the affair. It’s known that Elvis didn’t like confrontation so by firing Billy and ignoring Annie, that was his way of avoiding confrontation and his way of avoiding being faced with what he did

so it was a super messy situation but Billy Stanley ended up getting married again and he eventually forgave Elvis

And I don’t believe Elvis ever slept with a relative’s wife again… he definitely learned his lesson 🤧