Ann-Margret, with her unbrushed hair, raw energy, and genuine exhilaration, was a welcome breath of new air in the 1960s. The Swedish-born actress, now 81, was just stunning in her beauty, charisma, and dance ability.

Her love affair with Elvis Presley was widely publicized at the time, but despite their different marriages, they refused to give up on one another.

“We were truly soul mates, shy on the outside but unbridled within,” Ann-Margret writes in her memoirs.

Today, people regard Ann-Margret Olsson as one of the true greats.

Her status as one of the best live performers vintage Hollywood has ever produced will last a long time.

But today, we’ll go a bit further into her electrifying romance with Elvis Presley.

Though Ann-Margret has been rather cagey about divulging what transpired between the two stars, her autobiography, My Story, has some very fascinating revelations.

It’s unknown when Ann-Margret and Elvis initially met, but we do know that the blonde Swede captured Elvis Presley’s heart while filming Viva Vegas in 1964.

Presley ultimately decided to marry Priscilla, but Ann-Margret maintains she and the King of Rock’n’Roll were soulmates. Their chemistry and love affair would also have a significant impact on Elvis’ future wife.

Everyone could see Ann-Margret and Elvis’s excitement while filming Viva Las Vegas.

“She had so much fire and enthusiasm that she blasted her previous three male co-stars off-screen, but Elvis could keep up with her. He was the best on-screen companion she’d ever had, and she was his,” Filmink stated.

But the attractive pair didn’t just fall in love on film; their feelings for each other were genuine and lasted beyond the camera.

Their attraction was quick and intense.

“We both felt a current, an electricity that went straight through us,” Ann-Margret reflected. “It would become a force we couldn’t control.”

According to Ann-Margret, Elvis wanted them to marry. Their dates frequently involved driving up a hill, looking down at the city, and conversing.

Elvis occasionally requested total privacy with Ann-Margret, proving to her that she was a special girl for him. It was an indication that Elvis trusted her, which only strengthened their relationship.

“We were true soul mates, meek on the surface but wild inside. We both had self-destructive tendencies and lived on the brink. In many respects, if you take away the popularity and everything we accomplished so quickly, we both remained extremely childlike and emotionally insecure,” Ann-Margret says in her autobiography.

There was just one problem: Elvis was in a relationship with Priscilla Presley. Elvis had invited Priscilla, then 17, to move in with him in Memphis a year before the premiere of Viva Las Vegas.

But when Ann-Margret and Elvis were filming in Hollywood, she was not present.

Priscilla was aware that Elvis was cheating on her, but unlike the other women he was crushing on, she saw his affair with Ann-Margret as a serious threat. Elvis denied everything, but Priscilla understood what he was up to.

Priscilla was wary of the attractive blonde in the run-up to her wedding, but the lively and personable Swede ended up being too similar to Elvis. They were “mirror images,” which wasn’t a beneficial thing given Elvis’ principles. He held a conventional and conservative view of marriage. Priscilla Presley met the criteria, while Ann-Margret did not.

After Viva Las Vegas, they continued to send each other love letters, but Elvis quickly realized he needed to quit his relationship with Ann-Margret.

“We knew that our relationship had to end, that Elvis needed to fulfill his commitment,” Ann-Margret writes in My Tale.

The actress described their romance as a “confusing situation” as it burned out.

“There were other factors in Elvis’s life that forced him apart from me, and I understood them,” she told me.

Although their love engagement ended, the pair maintained communication following Elvis’ marriage to Priscilla. “The King” used to give her guitar-shaped flower bouquets whenever she played in Las Vegas.

Ann-Margret and Elvis remained lifelong friends, and when she didn’t get any flowers after a 1977 concert, she realized The King had died. Only one female co-star, Ann-Margret, attended Elvis’ funeral.

Reflecting on Ann-Margret’s career, the 81-year-old actress and performer has crafted unforgettable moments on the big screen and penned famous songs that still resonate today.

Born in Sweden in 1941, the true Hollywood icon rose to prominence in the 1960s. Ann-Margret is from a little hamlet in northern Sweden; few could have predicted that she would become one of the world’s most recognizable faces.

In 1946, she and her family left her Swedish homeland, which consisted of “lumberjacks and farmers high up near the Arctic Circle,” and moved to the United States.

“When Mother and I left, there were 160 residents,” according to her.

Ann Margret rose to prominence as a singer, and her sensuous and lively voice earned her the nickname “the female Elvis Presley.” Soon, Hollywood realized she had the entire package, and the moment was ideal for her energy as a performer.

Her involvement in the entertainment industry spans six decades, commencing in 1961.

Perhaps her most notable performance occurred in 1963 with the musical romantic comedy Bye Bye Birdie, in which she played the all-American adolescent Kim from Sweet Apple, Ohio. After the film became a big hit, Life Magazine featured Ann-Margret on its cover twice.

Ann-Margret is pleased with her accomplishments, but the highlight of her life is her long-term marriage to actor and manager Roger Smith. The pair married in 1967 and remained together till Roger died tragically in 2017.

“When I look back at my life, I am most proud of my marriage,” she told me.

Their marriage was all Ann-Margret had hoped for, but it started off on the wrong foot. During their civil wedding ceremony in Las Vegas, the Bye Bye Birdie star sobbed out of sadness.

The wedding was totally different from what she had imagined.

Fortunately, it did not matter in the end. Ann-Margret and Roger Smith had an excellent connection; they were a committed pair who never left one another’s side.

“Now in Roger I’ve found all the men I need rolled into one—a father, a friend, a lover, a manager, a businessman,” the actress told Rex Reed in 1972.

“It is excellent for me. I couldn’t live without a strong man.”

Ann-Margret still resides in the home they purchased in Los Angeles in 1968.

Ann-Margret and Roger experienced obstacles, as do most partnerships. They tried for 13 years to have children, but Ann-Margret never became pregnant. She tried everything, even a fertility pump, but nothing worked.

Ann-Margret eventually gave up and focused on becoming the greatest possible stepmother to Roger’s three children from a previous relationship.

Ann-Margret was 76 when the love of her life passed away. She wasn’t surprised by Roger’s death in 2017; her husband had to retire from acting in the 1980s due to his battle with myasthenia gravis. He was greatly affected by his vein and nerve conditions; he also had Parkinson’s disease.

His condition also meant that Ann-Margret had to take a break from work to care for him. She showed total commitment to her partner during his lengthy illness.

”I kept saying no to everything because I was taking care of him. If you’re a spouse, if one of you has a broken wing, the other takes over,” she said.

Although Ann-Margret, of course, mourned her husband’s death, she managed to move on with her life.

“She certainly mourned for Roger, but, more than anything, she fondly recalled the life they made together,” a friend told Closer Weekly in 2019. “To her, a wonderful love story doesn’t end with death. You carry their spirit with you.”

As of 2023, the talented woman keeps herself busy. She loves motorcycles and owns a purple Harley Davidson.

The 81-year-old actress, who still looks beautiful, loves to feel the horsepower of the machine beneath her and the wind in her hair. She’s obviously not ready to say “bye-bye” quite yet.

“If I ride somewhere, like a biker’s place, my lavender bike is the only one there.” Among all the Harleys and Ducatis, my lavender bike stands out with its flowers. Interesting. They get a kick out of it,” she says.

According to CBS, she is still involved in Hollywood, having appeared in the TV movie A Holiday Spectacular in 2022. She has also found love again, although she hasn’t disclosed his name. According to the actress, the new man in her life is no stranger, and falling in love again is a ”nice feeling,” she says.

”I’m so thankful for everything. And I’m very thankful that I have another day. Yup,” the Swedish native told CBS.

This woman had a spectacular career! And we will always admire her for that, as well as her commitment to her husband during his long illness!