Riley Keough and Her Husband Had a Whirlwind Australian Romance
Jan. 26 2023, Published 10:35 p.m. ET
In January 2023, Riley Keough, daughter of the late Lisa Marie Presley and star of the highly-anticipated book-to-television series Daisy Jones & The Six, shocked the world when news broke that she quietly welcomed a daughter in 2022. However, she wasn’t the one to reveal the secret.
It was actually her husband (and “best friend”), Ben Smith-Petersen, who shared the news while reading a eulogy that Riley wrote for her mother's funeral.
So, who is Riley Keough's husband? We know his name, but let's get to know him better!
Riley Keough's husband reading the eulogy at Lisa Marie Presley's funeral
Who is Riley Keough’s husband?
Riley has been married to Ben Smith-Petersen for nearly eight years. Ben is from Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia, and has been working as a stuntman in Hollywood since 2011.
A few of his notable appearances include stunt work in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Triple Frontier.
Riley and Ben met on a film set in 2012.
Riley met Ben on the set of Mad Max: Fury Road in 2012. However, the duo’s romance didn’t begin until they filmed reshoots in Australia the following year.
In a 2022 essay for Vogue Australia, Riley shared intimate details regarding their early days.
“I was just out of a relationship that I needed to recover from, so definitely wasn’t looking for anything,” Riley wrote. “Ben was on set and I saw him. It had been a year, and he just felt more grown up and there was something about him. I was like, ‘Oh wow.’”
Once Riley realized her feelings for Ben, their romance moved quickly. In a 2016 interview with USA Today, the actress revealed that she knew he was “the one” almost immediately.
“Two weeks into dating him, we were at a gas station and I was like, 'I could see myself having kids with this person,' ” she told the outlet. “It was kind of like I knew I was meeting my husband. It was very cool.”
Riley and Ben got married in 2015.
Six months into their relationship, Ben asked Riley to marry him. A few weeks before they married in February 2015, the couple was in Nepal building a school, and the families there offered to throw them a Hindu wedding.
“It was so beautiful and, in some ways, that wedding was a little more intimate and really special,” Riley said of her “first” wedding. “That wedding, I cried.”
On Feb. 4, 2015, Riley and Ben said “I do” once more in Napa Valley, Calif.
Riley and Ben have a child together.
During the memorial service for the late Lisa Marie Presley at Graceland, Ben revealed that he and Riley have a daughter. He read the eulogy that Riley wrote for her mother.
"I hope I can love my daughter the way you loved me, the way you loved my brother and my sisters,” the stuntman said. “Thank you for giving me strength, my heart, my empathy, my courage, my sense of humor, my manners, my temper, my wildness, my tenacity.”
A rep for Riley confirmed with PEOPLE that the married couple welcomed their daughter in 2022.
The new Daisy Jones & The Six series will premiere on Prime Video on March 3.
