"I lived somebody else's life. It was never about me, it was really about him on every level"
About this Quote
The subtext is about power dressed up as devotion. "Somebody else's" stays deliberately vague; she doesn't even grant the name at first, signaling how thoroughly her selfhood was absorbed into the role. When she pivots to "him", the pronoun does heavy cultural work. Elvis doesn't need introduction; the public has already decided the axis of that story. Priscilla is naming the trap: a relationship that doubled as a brand, with her cast as supporting character in a myth that the world insisted was bigger than any private reality.
"It was never about me" isn't just personal regret; it's an indictment of a whole machinery that rewards women for disappearing gracefully. In the Elvis narrative, she was often presented as the perfect counterpart: young, poised, curated. This line rewrites that image as labor - emotional, domestic, performative - done inside a spotlight she didn't control.
"On every level" widens the claim beyond marriage into economics, public perception, sexuality, even memory. It's not only that she loved a man who took up oxygen; it's that the culture kept refilling his tank, and expected her to breathe around it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Relationship |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Presley, Priscilla. (2026, January 16). I lived somebody else's life. It was never about me, it was really about him on every level. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-lived-somebody-elses-life-it-was-never-about-me-101818/
Chicago Style
Presley, Priscilla. "I lived somebody else's life. It was never about me, it was really about him on every level." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-lived-somebody-elses-life-it-was-never-about-me-101818/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I lived somebody else's life. It was never about me, it was really about him on every level." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-lived-somebody-elses-life-it-was-never-about-me-101818/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.




