AceShowbiz - Michael Edwards has responded to Lisa Marie Presley's explosive allegations against him in her posthumous memoir. The actor, who dated Priscilla Presley for seven years in the 1980s, has denied molesting the late singer when she was a child.

"These claims are absolutely untrue," Michael told Page Six in a statement on Thursday, October 10. "I never molested Lisa Marie and am shocked at the suggestion that I did."

Michael, who was 26 years older than Lisa Marie, said he regretted writing the controversial passages in his own 1988 memoir "Elvis, Priscilla and Me", where he admitted to "craving Lisa sexually."

"I was encouraged to embellish a harmless anecdote about Lisa Marie in my memoir from the 1980s and now regret that I did," he said. "I understand that these stories sell books, but the notion that I molested Lisa Marie is just a fabrication."

The actor's daughter Caroline Van Zandt also came to her father's defense. "Lisa Marie and I were close friends throughout my father's relationship with Priscilla," she wrote in a statement. "We were confidants, like sisters, sharing all our secrets and complaining about our parents as typical teenagers do."

She continued, "I have kept many notes and letters from Lisa Marie during those years and she never stated or insinuated that my dad touched her inappropriately. When she told me about my dad walking into her room, we then addressed and resolved the issue as a family."

"Those who know Priscilla and her fierce protectiveness of her family understand she never would have tolerated any sort of behavior like that. I'm disappointed and sad that these claims are being made," Caroline added.

In her newly-released memoir titled "From Here to the Great Unknown", Lisa Marie alleged Michael once ran his fingers up her leg when they were alone in her room. "He said he was going to teach me what was going to happen when I got older," she wrote in the book.

"He was putting his hand on my chest and saying a man's going to touch here, there, he put his hand between my legs, and he said they're going to touch you here. I think he gently kissed me and then left that night," she wrote.

According to Lisa Marie, when she told her mother what had occurred, Priscilla "flew into her room and slammed the door. Eventually she called me in and said that Edwards wanted to apologize." Lisa Marie said Michael did apologize to her, appearing "sullen and sulky," saying, "I'm so sorry, but in Europe that's how they teach the kids so that's what I was doing."

Michael, however, continued the alleged abuse. "Eventually it became that he would touch me and spank me," she wrote, noting she'd be left with bruises, "telling me not to look-'Don't look at me,' he'd say, 'don't turn your head.' I assume he was jerking off."

"He did it very calmly, just sitting in a chair, whacking my ass," she claimed. "My butt would be black, blue, orange, green." Lisa Marie said Priscilla's response to the bruises would allegedly be, "Well what did you do to cause that?"

Michael, in his own book "Priscilla, Elvis and Me", released in 1988, detailed the inappropriate feelings he developed for Lisa Marie as she grew older. He recalled getting "aroused" when Lisa Marie wrapped her legs around him as he bounced her up and down.

"Priscilla's fears had been justified all along," Michael wrote. "My love for Lisa always bordered on intimacy. As Lisa grew to a young woman it was a constant battle for me to keep my feelings in the proper perspective."

He continued, "When Lisa threw her arms around me in a daughterly way and said, using one of her many pet names for me, 'Merky, I love you. You're so cute,' I melted. She unknowingly exuded the same power of sexual charisma that her father had wielded over millions."

Michael admitted his feelings for Lisa Marie became a point of conflict between him and Priscilla, leading to the end of their relationship. They called it quits in 1984.

Prior to detailing the alleged abuse in her memoir, Lisa Marie called out Michael when addressing his book in 2003. "He's a sick f**k. He made his attempts at coming into my room and being inappropriate while drunk," she told Playboy, without elaborating the claims.