Elvis Presley Was ‘A Very Jealous Man,’ Says Ex, Linda Thompson

Linda Thompson has been in two high-profile celebrity relationships, one with Elvis Presley and another with Bruce Jenner, now known as Caitlyn Jenner, and she’s now sharing the deepest secrets from those experiences in a new tell-all book. Thompson talks openly about what it was like to be in a relationship with Elvis, dishing on that side of Presley so unfamiliar to most of The King of Rock and Roll’s fans. Linda also talks about falling in love with Bruce Jenner and feeling an attraction to him, while still involved with Elvis. There doesn’t seem to be much Ms. Thompson is holding back in her revealing memoir.

Linda Thompson Says Elvis Liked That She Was A Virgin

In covering the news of Linda Thompson’s book, A Little Thing Called Life: On Loving Elvis Presley, Bruce Jenner, and Songs in Between, Times of India reveals that Linda was involved with Elvis Presley for nearly five years. Linda was just 22-years-old, when she first met Presley on a hot Memphis day in July of 1972, and she confesses to feeling an instant draw to Elvis from that first meeting.

“I think that is what added to the allure of me for him,” Thompson says. “Because he was a very territorial man. And a very jealous man. It really made him feel wonderful that I was a virgin.”

She goes on to express the feeling that losing her virginity to Elvis made the event that much more special, because, as she had often told her parents, it had always been her dream to marry Presley. Thompson recalls telling her parents that she would marry the King of Rock and Roll, even when she was just 6-years-old.

The couple never did marry, but Linda says she learned much more about Presley than she had expected, throughout their five-year courtship. Thompson and Presley split up in 1976, just eight months before Elvis suffered a fatal heart attack.

Life With Elvis Presley Was An Educational Experience

In exclusive coverage of Thompson’s memoir, Entertainment Weekly reveals that Linda was very naive, when she first began living with Presley. The memoir tells that she was very unfamiliar with drug and alcohol use, because there was never anything like that in her parents’ house growing up. She recalls that she asked Elvis if he had been ill, upon finding prescription medications on the nightstand, but Presley only stammered and shrugged off her question as an intrusion.

“I had never been around drug abuse or alcoholism, my parents didn’t even keep alcohol in the house, not even beer,” Thompson adds. “I was pretty green going in.”

Drug abuse wasn’t the only one of Elvis’ failings Linda says she had to come to terms with in her relationship with The King. She says infidelity was also common in their relationship and reveals she was willing to share Presley with his fans, as well as with other women. While Linda says she understood Elvis’ need to seek companionship outside of the relationship, she was hurt by his cheating.

Ultimately, Thompson says she came to accept the difficult realization that, while Elvis Presley was a cultural icon, a superb musician, and her lifelong dream, he still couldn’t give her the stable family for which she longed.

“I didn’t think that lifestyle would be conducive to family life,” she recalls. “I had to make a decision. It was a tough one and I felt depleted once I left.”

Before that relationship ended, Ms. Thompson says there was a moment of almost supernatural clarity in which she revealed to Elvis that her desires might already be leaning in a new direction.

“Elvis and I were sitting in bed watching the 1976 Olympics from Montreal and this incredible visage of a man, this incredible specimen of man crossed the finish line of the decathlon,” shares Linda. “Elvis turned to me and said, ‘You know, I am not gay, but that man is a damn good-looking man,’ and I said, ‘He is. In fact, I think one day I am going to marry him,’ and Elvis said, ‘Yeah, over my dead body.'”

Four years later, Bruce Jenner had become the new love interest in Linda Thompson’s life. The couple would marry one year later in 1981 and produce two children, Brandon and Brody Jenner, before divorcing in 1986.

[Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Celebrity Fight Night]