Pregnant singer Lisa Marie Presley is launching a libel bid against a British newspaper after it published an article alleging she is overweight.

Elvis Presley’s daughter says the Daily Mail’s story, which was picked up by various media sources worldwide, ridiculed her appearance and forced her to disclose she is expecting a child.

Simon Smith, the star’s U.K. lawyer, says the publication’s claims she had an "unhealthy appetite" and is "growing like her dad" caused her to feel "deeply upset and offended".

The 40-year-old is issuing the libel claim against Associated Newspapers, the Daily Mail’s publishers, at London’s High Court.

Presley’s spokeswoman Cindy Guagenti says, "(The article was) like, ‘She’s gonna die like her father’, ‘She and her mom are in a fight because of her weight’ - that’s not true at all. It’s just awful stuff."

The star hit back at the media on Friday with a blog on website MySpace.com, which read: "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.

"Once they got a glimpse of my expanding physique a few days ago, they have been like a pack of coyotes circling their prey whilst eerily howling with delight. Starting with a London publication and then New York and Chicago all writing false defamatory, degrading stories about all of the dark possible reasons I could be putting on weight."

Presley has two teenage children from her previous marriage to Danny Keogh Riley, 18, and 15-year-old Benjamin - but this is her first child with husband Michael Lockwood.