Ann-Margret and Elvis Presley: The Love Story She Refused to Turn Into a Scandal

In 1963, 22-year-old Ann-Margret arrived on the MGM set of Viva Las Vegas and met Elvis Presley. Hollywood had already begun calling the Swedish-born actress the “female Elvis” because of her explosive stage presence, but no publicity department could have planned what happened next. When the cameras started rolling, their chemistry was obvious; away from them, something far more complicated was beginning.

They seemed remarkably alike beneath their glamorous public images. Both could command a room when performing, yet both were known for being more reserved away from the spotlight. Music, humor, motorcycles and a restless energy drew them together, and their friendship developed into a romance during the making of the film.

But there was one enormous complication waiting outside the movie set: Priscilla Beaulieu. She had already become an important part of Elvis’s private life, and reports surrounding Elvis and Ann-Margret soon created tension. Suddenly, what had begun between two young stars was colliding with promises, expectations and futures that had already been taking shape.

The problem was bigger than jealousy alone. Ann-Margret was building a major career of her own and had no intention of simply disappearing behind another celebrity’s name. Elvis, meanwhile, was living under extraordinary pressures—from fame, his entourage, his management and his own ideas about what marriage and home should look like.

Their chemistry may have been powerful, but chemistry could not solve those differences. Eventually, Elvis and Ann-Margret went separate ways romantically. And this is where their story becomes more interesting than the scandal Hollywood wanted it to be.

On May 1, 1967, Elvis married Priscilla in Las Vegas. One week later, on May 8, Ann-Margret married actor Roger Smith, beginning a marriage that would last until Smith’s death in 2017. On paper, the chapter between Elvis and Ann-Margret appeared to have closed.

Yet there was a small gesture that kept appearing.

Over the years, Ann-Margret recalled that Elvis would send flowers when she opened a new engagement in Las Vegas. They were not dramatic public declarations designed for photographers. They were private signs of affection and remembrance between two people whose lives had moved in different directions.

That detail gives their story much of its emotional power. Sometimes the person who once meant something profound to you does not remain your partner. Instead, they become part of the history you carry quietly—a person whose importance does not require possession, reunion or public explanation.

When Elvis died on August 16, 1977, Ann-Margret went to Memphis for his funeral. She did not turn that moment into a spectacle. In the years that followed, she spoke about Elvis with affection but maintained boundaries around the most intimate parts of their relationship.

Her 1994 memoir, Ann-Margret: My Story, gave readers a clearer understanding of their connection without transforming it into a sensational betrayal of someone who could no longer answer for himself. That restraint became almost as memorable as the romance itself. In an industry where private memories can become valuable commodities, she chose not to reveal everything.

Perhaps that is why the Elvis–Ann-Margret story continues to fascinate people more than six decades after Viva Las Vegas. It contains everything Hollywood loves—two magnetic stars, undeniable chemistry, difficult timing and separate futures—but its most powerful element may be what remained unspoken.

Elvis ultimately followed one road, while Ann-Margret followed another. She built her own remarkable career and shared more than five decades of marriage with Roger Smith, while Elvis became one of the most recognizable cultural figures of the 20th century. Their lives proved that an important love does not always become a lifelong partnership.

And perhaps the most haunting symbol of their story was never a kiss captured on film.

It was the flowers that kept arriving years afterward—a quiet reminder that some relationships end without becoming meaningless. Maybe Ann-Margret’s greatest revelation about Elvis was not everything she eventually said, but everything she believed should remain between the two people who had lived it.