Linda Thompson Shares Photos From Elvis’ Final Years On What Would’ve Been His 89th Birthday

Linda Thompson dated Elvis Presley and lived with him in Graceland estate from 1972 to 1977. The late King of Rock and Roll’s ex-lover celebrated what would have been his 89th birthday with a sweet note and photos from his final years. “Difficult to fathom that Elvis would have been 89 years old today had he lived to see this birthday. I, along with the rest of the world, wish he had,” she wrote.

She shared videos and photos of them together, with the first of the carousel featuring them getting off a plane. “I often feel as if he is my guardian angel watching over me, just as I watched over him in the 4 1/2 years we lived together,” Linda added.

Linda thanks fans for celebrating Elvis

73-year-old Linda also thanked Elvis’ “legions of fans around the world who keep his memory alive” in the birthday tribute. “Scroll through to see the photos of Elvis and me spending his penultimate birthday— his 41st— together in Vail. Beautiful memories,” she directed them.

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“Happy heavenly birthday to this beautiful, iconic, legendary man,” Linda wrote. Her followers took to the comments to wish Elvis and comfort Linda as well. “He was the sweetest, kindest, most generous man who ever walked this planet. You were so lucky to be able to spend part of your life with a wonderful man like him,” someone wrote, assuring her that Elvis “protects you from Heaven and watches over you like a guardian angel.”

Why did Linda and Elvis split?

The duo broke up on Christmas Day in the late ‘70s after Linda learned of his infidelity with various women, including Ginger Alden, whom Elvis dated for eight months before he died. Regardless of his vices, Linda was enamored by Elvis, whom she described as a “sensual, tender lover.” “When he slept, I’d sometimes look at his face, the curvature of his high cheekbones, his aquiline nose and gorgeous lips,” she added.

Linda, who had over a dozen beauty pageant titles and runner-up rankings when she met Elvis, refused to marry him because she wanted to “be a mother” and “live a normal life” with her kids. “I wanted to have a more normal existence. Elvis and I lived like vampires. I knew I couldn’t have a child and bring a child into that kind of world,” she explained to The Doctors in an old interview. Linda went on to marry Bruce Jenner with whom she had two kids before their divorce and her remarriage to David Foster.