Lisa Marie Presley says she was forced to reveal her pregnancy because of all the “vicious” comments about her weight. The 40-year-old says she hopes her pregnancy announcement will help “stop all of the harassment, and I can stop dodging the continuous bullets.”

“After being the target all week of slanderous and degrading stories, horribly manipulated pictures and articles in the media, I have had to show my cards and announce under the gun and under vicious personal attack that I am in fact pregnant,” she wrote on her blog.

A rep for Presley confirmed today that she and her husband Michael Lockwood are expecting their first child together. “They couple are incredibly overjoyed,” her rep said.

Presley is due to give birth in the fall. She and 46-year-old Lockwood, who is a guitarist and music producer, were married in 2006.