In the new issue of Closer Weekly, Elvis Presley’s bride-to-be, Ginger Alden, sets the record straight about his last few months and his desire to marry and have more kids.

“There’s been an unjust portrayal of Elvis — of a man sitting up in his room, talking about his mother all the time, and depressed,” Ginger tells Closer of the star, who died of a cardiac arrhythmia on Aug. 16, 1977. “The Elvis I came to know and love was not that way in the last nine months of his life.”

Ginger — whose new book Elvis & Ginger hit stands Sept. 2 — describes Elvis as a loving man who, the night before his sudden death at age 42, was talking about holding “the wedding of the century” that Christmas.

“Things were moving forward in a positive way for both of us,” Ginger tells Closer. “Hours before he passed away, we had set a wedding date. He was letting me know he was looking forward to this.” And Elvis wanted children with Ginger. “He wanted a son — we both wanted that,” she reveals.

For more of Ginger’s private recollections, pick up the new issue of Closer Weekly, on stands now!

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