Elvis Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley and ‘King of Pop’ Michael Jackson had a romantic relationship as per Wayne Isham, the director for Jackson’s You Are Not Alone hit.
Wayne Isham opens up on the matter
On Thursday, Presley died hours after being rushed to the hospital for a possible cardiac arrest. She was 54. For the first time since her death, director Wayne Isham is speaking about the relationship between her and the late King of Pop. Isham, 64, was the director for Jackson’s You Are Not Alone video, which was released in 1995. Presley starred as the leading lady.
Presley and Jackson, who married in 1994 before divorcing two years later, were very much in love while filming the video for the Grammy-nominated hit, Isham told while speaking with PEOPLE.
“They had [an] innocent, playful relationship that I felt was a real relationship,” says Isham. “So it all came off fine. It came off really well. I think she looks great in it.”
He continues, “There are so many different cuts of the versions of the song. You could see her laughing, him and her laughing, and her swimming around and coming up to the edge of the pool. It was a fun shoot. She was game for it, and she had a great spirit, and the two of them had a great time in it.”
He notes that at the time of the shoot, Presley and Jackson were newlyweds, which played into their on-camera chemistry.
“It was in that newlywed fun and humor and laughter and smiles that you can see. So it was all very positive,” he says. “People have asked me this before, it’s like, ‘Is there a reality to their relationship, and what was going on there?’ It was all very fun. They had a great time and great relationship on the set, so the best I can reflect off of is that.”
Sharing details about their “genuine affection,” Isham tells PEOPLE the then-couple also had a shared “genuine sense of humor.”
“There was a lot of laughter between the two of them, smiles, so I thought that was good,” he adds.
Furthermore, he explained that their love was just as strong when the cameras were rolling in between takes, giving him candid footage of the pair that made it into the actual video.
“I was saying, ‘We don’t have time for you to leave, so just stay on the set right there, and I’m just going to shoot.’ In a lot of that stuff, in a lot of those shots, you see literally off the cuff because he’s not singing during the piece out there on the set with her. It was literally just us. That’s the real reaction, the real inner change of smiles and laughter. That was me just picking those shots off.”