Elvis Presley’s ex, Linda Thompson, to release memoir August 23
Linda Thompson, former girlfriend of Elvis Presley and ex-wife of Bruce Jenner, now Caitlyn, is writing her personal memoir called A Little Thing Called Life: From Elvis’s Graceland to Bruce Jenner’s Caitlyn & Songs in Between. Linda, a former Miss Tennessee and successful pop songwriter, is scheduled to release the book on August 23.
Thompson made a rare appearance in March at an Elvis Presley festival in Dallas and briefly discussed her book. She explained that the reason she has waited so long to tell her life story was that she had to wait until Caitlyn came out. During her marriage to Bruce Jenner, he revealed to her that he identified as a woman. After trying six months of therapy, they decided to divorce in 1986. However, Thompson kept Jenner’s secret after they divorced. Even her two sons with Jenner, Brody and Brandon, did not know the truth about their father, until three years ago.
Before she married Bruce Jenner, Thompson was Elvis Presley’s girlfriend for 4 1/2 years. She started dating Elvis in July 1972, when Elvis was in the midst of a divorce with Priscilla.
While Thompson didn’t reveal any specific stories from the book, she gave the audience a sense of how personal and intimate the book would be when she described how Elvis Presley made her “really feel loved. With tears in his eyes,” Linda reminisced, “he would grind his teeth and say ‘I love you.'”
Thompson worked as an actress in the 1970s appearing on Hee Haw and other TV shows. In the 1980s, she became a successful songwriter which led to working with composer and record producer, David Foster. They were married from 1991 to 2005.
When asked why she never got Elvis to sing one of her songs, she said regrettably that she “didn’t know about royalties.” She used to write poetry for Elvis, and he offered to have her poems turned into songs that he could sing. However, she declined saying she wanted to keep the sentiments private just between the two of them.
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