Photo:Amanda Edwards/Getty
Amanda Edwards/Getty
Many may recognize Navarone Garibaldi Garcia as the only son ofPriscilla Presley, but as he told PEOPLE in 2023, “they don’tknowme.”
Presley and her former partner, music producer Marco Garibaldi, welcomed Garcia four years into their relationship in 1987. While Presley and Garibaldi parted ways for good in 2006 and Garcia no longer has a relationship with his father, he and his mother have remained close.
“I got in trouble more than everybody else, because kids' parents would find out who my mom was, and they’d want a reason to talk to her,” he told PEOPLE of growing up with his famous mom. “I wasn’t very comfortable with it.”
Like his older sister and father, Garcia has also launched a music career of his own and has been performing with the band Them Guns since 2012. Garcia told PEOPLE he hopes to go on an international tour with the group.
Here is everything to know about Priscilla Presley’s son Navarone Garcia.
He was born in 1987
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Presley gave birth to Garcia in 1987 — over 21 years since her first child, daughter Lisa Marie, was born.
Soon after Garcia’s arrival, an ex of Garibaldi’s called Presley and told her, “[Garibaldi is] not who you think he is.” As Garcia later explained to PEOPLE, “My mom pretty much said, ‘Don’t call here again,‘because she didn’t know what to do with that information.”
Though Presley and Garibaldi never married, they were a couple for over 20 years before splitting in 2006.
He is a musician and performs with the band Them Guns
Navarone Garcia Instagram
Like his sister and his father before him, Garcia is also a musician. He was in a band as a teen and formed the group Them Guns in 2012. However, Garcia quickly recognized that a successful career isn’t easy to pull off.
Garcia said, “I thought, ‘OK, I’m going into the family business. I’ll write a song, and then we’ll start touring it.’ I didn’t realize it takes way more than that.”
Garcia found out more about his father’s background in 2017
Garcia later earned his dad had come to the United States from Brazil — not Italy — and changed his last name from Garcia to Garibaldi after being told he’d never make it in Hollywood with a Hispanic last name.
After Garcia asked Garibaldi about the name change, his dad replied, “Lose my number.” That was the last time the two spoke.
However, losing a relationship with his father has not stopped Garcia from pursuing a relationship with his father’s family in Brazil. He continued, “I lost one family member, but I gained 20-plus. I have zero regrets.”
He married Elisa Achilli in 2022
Priscilla Presley Instagram
On Feb. 15, 2022,Garcia married his longtime girlfriend Elisa Achilliin her home country of Switzerland.
“I never thought I would find a counterpart that is so understanding and supportive," Garcia told PEOPLE following the nuptials. “She makes everything we do effortless, and I can’t imagine life without her.”
Achilli added, “Navarone is truly the most genuine, sweet and sensitive man I have ever known and I’m so lucky that after four years of long-distance, we can start our life together as husband and wife.”
Presley, who also attended her son’s big day, said of the newlyweds, “They’ve been together for four years and we’ve all have been waiting patiently for this day.”
He once struggled with addiction
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Weeks after his older sister Lisa Marie unexpectedly died, Garcia opened up about his own struggles with substance abuse and addiction to PEOPLE, which he said date back to when he was in high school. As a teen, Garcia began using heroin before becoming addicted to fentanyl, a drug 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.
“I was under the impression I was doing heroin, but then it’d turn out to be fentanyl. That was a whole different beast. I became so addicted that I’d need it every 45 minutes,” he told PEOPLE in February 2023.
With the help of his now-wife, Garcia got clean in 2020. He explained, “When COVID happened, I wanted to go [to Switzerland] and see her for more than three or four days. I didn’t want to have to bring a pound of fentanyl with me anywhere I went. I buckled down and said, ‘Let’s see how bad this can get.’ I was pretty much in my bed in the fetal position all day. It feels like a different lifetime, almost. The whole world got a lot better [afterward].”
Music isn’t all that Garcia is passionate about. In 2016, Garcia showcased his collection of reptiles, which includes snakes and lizards, onVimeo.
He attended his half-sister Lisa Marie Presley’s funeral at Graceland in January 2023
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The funeral came at a tumultuous time for the family, as Presley and Lisa Marie’s oldest daughterRiley Keoughwerelocked in a disputeover Lisa Marie’s trust. In May 2023, however,the family reached a settlement.
Presley told PEOPLE exclusively in a statement, “As a family, we are pleased that we resolved this together. My family and I hope that everyone will grant us the privacy we have needed to properly grieve Lisa Marie and spend personal time together. We love and appreciate all of you and the Presley family is stronger than ever.”
source: people.com
