Few love stories in Hollywood history have been as complex—or as bittersweet—as that of Elvis Presley and Linda Thompson. Their romance burned bright through the 1970s, defined by passion, loyalty, and pain. Though their relationship ended just a year before Elvis’s untimely death, Linda remains one of the few people who saw both the legend and the man behind the fame.
Now, nearly five decades later, Linda is opening up about her years with Elvis—the joy, the heartbreak, and the reasons she finally had to walk away from the King of Rock and Roll.
Linda Thompson was born on May 23, 1950, in Memphis, Tennessee—just a short drive from where Elvis would one day build his kingdom at Graceland. Even as a little girl, she felt a strange connection to the singer who was electrifying the world. “I told my parents when I was six,” she recalled years later, “I’m going to marry Elvis Presley.” It sounded like a fantasy, the kind only a child could believe. But destiny, it seems, had other plans.
By her late teens, Linda had blossomed into a local celebrity in her own right. She won beauty pageants, earning titles such as Miss Shelby County and Miss Memphis State University. In 1972, she went on to be crowned Miss Tennessee and finished third in the Miss USA competition. But it wasn’t fame she sought—it was direction. What she didn’t know was that her life was about to collide with the most famous man on Earth.
When Their Worlds Collided
That same year, Elvis Presley’s marriage to Priscilla had officially ended. He was lonely, restless, and still performing to sold-out arenas across the world. During one of his private film screenings in Memphis, a mutual friend introduced him to a radiant young woman who walked into the room and instantly changed the energy.
“Elvis turned to me and said, ‘Well, hello honey!’” Linda later recounted with a laugh. She hadn’t realized he was newly single. “I was nervous, but he made everyone feel like they’d known him their whole life.”
