Whispers of problems between Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson grew stronger throughout 1995, and Presley ultimately confirmed those rumors by filing for divorce in December of that year. The marriage ultimately lasted a little over 20 months, with Presley citing irreconcilable differences in her Los Angeles filing. As CNN reported at the time, Presley's publicist declined an initial comment, and Jackson's publicist stated he didn't know anything about the pair divorcing.

Presley also requested to change her last name to the one she was born with, completely dropping Jackson from her name. Presley's lawyer John Coale explained to The Chicago Tribune that the divorce would be fairly easy; as he put it, "There are no disputes as to property or anything else. It's going to be a very simple and clean divorce, and they're going to remain friends."

Despite Presley and Jackson's many proclamations to the opposite, there were some who were not surprised by the divorce at all. Writer Mitchell Fink, who wrote a column called Insider for People at the time, explained to The Chicago Tribune that he believed they both had ulterior motives for the marriage in the first place. He said, "It was a desperate attempt on his part at the time to establish himself in the eyes of the world as a normal person, not a weirdo. I think she did it because she thought it would help her professionally."