The mysterious union that briefly joined the kingdoms of Graceland and Neverland has collapsed.
Lisa Marie Presley-Jackson, heir to the domain of a father who was once the king of rock, filed papers Thursday seeking to end her 20-month marriage to Michael Jackson, self-anointed ruler of pop music's realm.
Citing the familiar "irreconcilable differences," Presley-Jackson's three-page filing asked the Los Angeles County Superior Court to dissolve a marriage that was surrounded by mystery, gossip, megahype and skepticism from the moment it began.
So far, all that the 27-year-old daughter of Elvis Presley seeks in the way of settlement is her old name back, asking that she be permitted to drop the "Jackson" as soon as a divorce is granted.
"There are no disputes as to property or anything else," said Presley's lawyer, John Coale. "It's going to be a very simple and clean divorce, and they're going to remain friends."
Jackson, 37, did not comment on the divorce filing. His publicist, Lee Solters, said only that the pair "have mutually agreed to go their separate ways. However, they remain good friends."
From the moment the two were rumored to have stolen off to the Dominican Republic for a wedding, their brief marriage was the focal point of rumor and speculation that touched on everything from plans for joint recordings to the existence of a sex life.
When the two married in May 1994--both wore black for the ceremony--Jackson was reeling from charges leveled against him a year earlier by a 13-year-old boy who said the pop singer had repeatedly lured him into sexual activity.
Although district attorneys in both Santa Barbara and Los Angeles said they had acquired considerable evidence to substantiate the charges, no action was taken against Jackson. He later reached an out-of-court, multimillion-dollar settlement with the boy's family.
The sudden announcement that Jackson had married Presley led many to conclude that the marriage was a sham, a perverse publicity stunt designed to improve Jackson's image and help rekindle a flickering career.
But both he and his bride professed true love and their desire to start a family.
So rife was the speculation about the couple's sex life that Presley discussed it with a degree of enthusiasm on national television.
During an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer last year, Presley insisted that they were not conjugally challenged.
"Do we have sex?" Presley said. "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
When asked about the possibility that their marriage was only for show, Jackson simply replied, "Like we're faking this?"
"How could you fake this 24 hours a day, sleeping with somebody, waking up with somebody?" Presley asked.
Yet few were surprised by Presley's divorce filing Thursday.
"I said all along it was a sham, and it is a sham," said Mitchell Fink, who writes the Insider gossip column for People magazine.
"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." Presley is an aspiring singer.
Fink said he believes that during the early days of the marriage Jackson tried to record with Presley but that the attempts were abandoned after they proved a disappointment.
Rumors of the impending breakup began circulating earlier this winter, around the time Jackson went to Europe to recuperate after he collapsed during rehearsals in New York for a live performance on the HBO cable channel.
During that vacation, which reportedly was underwritten by a Saudi prince, Jackson was photographed traveling with several young boys.
British tabloid newspapers reported that Presley was infuriated by Jackson's actions and decided that the marriage had to end.
Jackson's career, still a phenomenal success by most measures, has been in decline since peaking in the mid-1980s.
Sales of Jackson's latest recording for Sony Music, a double-CD album called "HIStory: Past Present and Future-Book I," are considered disappointing by industry analysts.
His 1982 album "Thriller" remains the largest-selling album of all time. It sold 47 million copies worldwide and won eight Grammy awards. His 1987 album, "Bad," sold 25 million copies.