Michael Lockwood Is 'Ready, Able and Willing to Protect' Twins amid Lisa Marie Trust Battle, Says Lawyer

Michael Lockwood Is 'Ready, Able and Willing to Protect' Twins amid Lisa Marie Trust Battle, Says Lawyer  Michael Lockwood, the ex-h...

Michael Lockwood Is 'Ready, Able and Willing to Protect' Twins amid Lisa Marie Trust Battle, Says Lawyer

 Michael Lockwood, the ex-husband of Lisa Marie Presley, wants to "protect" their twins, Harper Vivienne Ann and Finley Aaron Love, because of the trust fight in the family.

Judge Lynn Healey Scaduto thought about Lockwood's request to represent the twins in a trust fight over Lisa Marie's will at a hearing on Thursday in Los Angeles. His lawyer, Scott Rahn, said that he is "ready, able, and willing to protect their interests."

When Judge Scaduto asked the 61-year-old artist if he knew any of the people in the case before, Rahn said that everyone was on good terms with him.

"Lockwood gets along well with everyone involved and treats them like family," he said. "He is both legally and morally obligated to look out for [the twins'] best interests." (A source told PEOPLE that Lockwood wasn't asked to the funeral and that Lisa Marie would have wanted "the last thing" for him to be there.)

The lawyers for Priscilla Presley and Riley Keough didn't have any problems with the request, and the judge said she would write a decision. The court granted the requests after the decision was made Thursday afternoon.

Lockwood asked to be the 14-year-old twins' formal guardian ad litem in March by filing a petition. His reason was that "the minor is a beneficiary of a trust that is at issue in the case above before the probate court." The minor needs a guardian ad litem to look out for her best interests during the process."

"There is no conflict regarding appointment because the proposed guardian is not a beneficiary of the trust instrument at issue," said Lockwood, who had Harper and Finley with Lisa Marie in October 2008.

Harper and Finley both signed papers giving Lockwood permission to be their guardian ad litem at the time.

Lisa Marie was the only child of Elvis Presley and his ex-wife Priscilla. She died of a heart attack in January when she was 54 years old. She is survived by her mother, Priscilla, who is 77 years old, and her three children, Riley, Harper, and Finley. The last three will get her estate. Lisa Marie was also the mother of her son Benjamin Keough, who killed himself in July of 2020.

Barry Siegel, who used to be Priscilla and Lisa Marie's business manager, was no longer a co-trustee. Instead, Riley, 33, and Benjamin were put in charge of the trust, which included the Graceland mansion and a 15 percent stake in Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), which together brought in an estimated $110 million in 2022.

Priscilla said she didn't know about the 2016 change until after Lisa Marie's death. She argued that it should be thrown out because, among other things, Lisa Marie didn't tell her about the changes as the trust's terms required.

In a recent issue of PEOPLE, Lisa Marie's friend said, "There's no question" what her plans were: "Lisa wanted Riley and Ben to be the trustees, and all of her children to be the beneficiaries."

In a statement released on February 3, Priscilla said she is acting with "integrity and love." A source close to Lockwood said the matriarch stays close to him so she can "be a part of the lives of her grandchildren."

Before the court hearing, sources said Riley was focused on her acting job and Elvis's first great-grandchild. She stars in the new Amazon Prime Video limited series Daisy Jones & the Six. Riley's stuntman husband, Ben Smith-Petersen, told people at the funeral of her mother that they had their first child in 2022.

Lockwood addressed Lisa Marie's death on social media.

"We are all in shock over the sudden death of Lisa Marie Presley, the mother of my two beautiful twin daughters Harper and Finley," Lockwood said about Lisa Marie and his daughters in a statement to PEOPLE. "Nothing can prepare us for a tragedy that comes out of nowhere. It's hard to understand."

"Right now, taking care of my daughters and making sure they always feel safe and loved is the most important thing to me," he said. "They both have amazing hearts, and they will keep our family's history alive for the rest of their lives. Since Harper and Finley were born, they have brought me a lot of happiness, and I will always love them. We ask for privacy during this very hard time."