Riley Keough's 2 Children: Everything She's Said About Her Daughter Tupelo and Baby No. 2
- - Riley Keough's 2 Children: Everything She's Said About Her Daughter Tupelo and Baby No. 2
Jordana ComiterDecember 18, 2025 at 11:09 PM
0
Kevin Mazur/Getty
Riley Keough and Ben Smith-Petersen attend the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 7, 2024, in Beverly Hills, Calif. -
Riley Keough shares two children with her husband, Ben Smith-Petersen
The Daisy Jones & the Six star named her first daughter, Tupelo Storm, after her late grandfather Elvis Presley and her brother
The actress keeps her kids' lives private and has said she wants them to do "normal kids stuff"
Riley Keough grew up in the spotlight as the granddaughter of rock icon Elvis Presley. But now that the actress is a mom, she keeps her kids' lives more private.
In August 2022, the Daisy Jones & the Six star welcomed her first child, daughter Tupelo Storm, via surrogate. Her family expanded when she and her husband, Ben Smith-Petersen, quietly welcomed their second child in early 2025.
While Keough has famously kept her personal life private, she got candid about parenthood in an August 2023 cover story for Vanity Fair, saying it's the one thing in her life so far that she has wanted to "get right."
"I don’t think you ever can be a perfect parent, but I would like to be the best mom for her that I can be," she said.
More recently, during a January 2025 appearance on Call Her Daddy, Keough opened up about a fear of hers as her kids grow older.
"I don't know if it's just inevitable, but as a parent, I don't ever want my kids to feel like they have to take care of me or unless they literally do," the actress said. "But I mean like, emotionally, I don't want my children to feel like my happiness is their responsibility."
Here's everything to know about Riley Keough's two children.
Her kids were born in 2022 and 2025
Frazer Harrison/Getty Ben Smith-Petersen and Riley Keough attend the Special Screening of 'Zola' on June 29, 2021, in Los Angeles.
Keough welcomed daughter Tupelo in August 2022 via surrogate. In her conversation with Vanity Fair, she explained that while she could "carry children," she ultimately chose surrogacy because it was the "best choice for what I had going on physically with the autoimmune stuff," referring to her Lyme disease diagnosis.
Speaking of surrogates, Keough said it's a "very cool, selfless, and incredible act that these women do to help other people."
News of Tupelo’s birth was first revealed during Keough’s mom Lisa Marie Presley's memorial service in January 2023. At the service, which was held at Graceland in Memphis, Tenn., Smith-Petersen read a tribute Keough had written to her mom onstage, saying, "I hope I can love my daughter the way you loved me, the way you loved my brother and my sisters."
Keough became a mom of two when she and Smith-Petersen quietly welcomed their second child in early 2025. Her grandmother, Priscilla Presley, confirmed the news during a September 2025 conversation with PEOPLE, saying, "She's got an amazing husband and two great children, so I'm happy for her very much."
"I love her babies," Priscilla added. "I'm really happy for Riley."
Tupelo's first and middle name are an ode to Keough's late family members
Riley Keough/Instagram Riley Keough and her brother Benjamin.
In her conversation with Vanity Fair, Keough shared that her daughter is named after her grandfather Elvis, who was born in Tupelo, Miss.
"It’s funny because we picked her name before the Elvis movie," she said. "I was like, ‘This is great because it’s not really a well-known word or name in relation to my family—it’s not like Memphis or something.' "
The actress continued, "Then when the Elvis movie came out, it was like, Tupelo this and Tupelo that. I was like, 'Oh, no.' But it’s fine."
Tupelo's middle name, Storm, also has a special meaning, as it is an ode to Keough's late brother, Benjamin Storm, who died in 2020 at 27 years old.
Keough's mom had a special nickname for Tupelo
WWD/Penske Media/Getty
Riley Keough and Lisa Marie Presley.
Following Lisa Marie's death, Keough finished her mom's memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, which was published in October 2024. In an exclusive excerpt of the memoir shared with PEOPLE ahead of its release, Keough revealed the sweet nickname Lisa Marie had for her granddaughter.
She "would call Tupelo our little light," Keough wrote.
Meanwhile, Priscilla loves her grandmother duties. During her September 2025 conversation with PEOPLE, Priscilla called Tupelo "so cute" and shared that she "lives in her own world."
"She does what she wants," Priscilla said. "She rules."
Keough wants her children to do "normal kids stuff"
MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty
Riley Keough and Ben Smith-Petersen attend the Vanity Fair 95th Oscars Party on March 12, 2023, in Beverly Hills, Calif.
During her appearance on Call Her Daddy, Keough got candid about ways in which she plans to parent differently from her late mother. While she acknowledged that her mom "was really wanting to give everything she could to her kids," the Zola actress admitted that it made it hard to "find joy" in the smaller moments.
"I think she was such an amazing parent and she wanted us to have, I think like her father did, these amazing experiences all the time," Keough said. "For me personally, I think that the problem there could be for some that when you're used to so much, it's hard to find joy in simple things."
The actress continued, "And so I really want my children to be able to find joy playing in the backyard and doing normal kids stuff and not need elephants and circus and all these things all the time."
Keough embraces a "southern style of parenting" that she learned from her late mom
John Nacion/Variety via Getty
Riley Keough at the 35th Annual Gotham Film Awards on Dec. 1, 2025, in New York.
Although Keough has shared the ways in which she'll parent differently from her mom, there are also several ways Lisa Marie influenced her. In a November 2024 conversation with author Taylor Jenkins Reid, Keough shared one way in which she mirrors Lisa Marie's parenting style.
"I think that I always say it's this southern style of parenting, but it's actually very specifically my family," Keough shared. "I think it is from the south, but whatever way she was parented was how I was parented in a sense. And I also now sort of parent that way."
She added, "It's really loving and tactile and smothering — no boundaries."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
