Two documents found in a cabinet and couch of the late Aretha Franklin, which caused rifts in her family since her death in 2018, have come under the spotlight.
The singer’s handwritten will found in her couch after her death is a valid Michigan will, a jury said on Tuesday, a critical turn in a dispute that has turned three of her four sons against each other.
It’s a victory for Franklin’s second oldest and youngest children – Edward and Kecalf – whose lawyers had argued that papers dated 2014 should override a 2010 will that was discovered around the same time in a locked cabinet at the Queen of Soul’s home in suburban Detroit.
Franklin’s oldest child, Clarence, lives with special needs in an assisted living facility in Michigan and remains uninvolved in the dispute. His guardian’s lawyer told the BBC that they “have reached a settlement that gives Clarence a percentage of the estate without regard to the outcome of the will contest.”
Aretha Franklin did not leave behind a formal, typewritten will when she died five years ago at age 76 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. But both documents, with scribbles and hard-to-decipher passages, suddenly emerged in 2019 when her niece, Sabrina Owens, scoured the home for records.
Owens along with Franklin’s third oldest child, Ted White II, were listed as co-executors or personal representatives to the estate in the 2010 version of the will. Owens quit being a representative of her aunt’s estate in 2020 due to divisions within the family.
In a letter filed in a Detroit court, Owens wrote: “Given my aunt’s love of family and desire for privacy, this is not what she would have wanted for us, nor is it what I want.
“I love my cousins, hold no animosity towards them, and wish them the best.”
Franklin’s assets, once valued at $80m when she died, plummeted to $6m due to more recent estimations and unpaid taxes.
Franklin’s estate managers have been paying bills, settling millions in tax debts and generating income through music royalties and other intellectual property. The will dispute, however, has been unfinished business.
There are differences between the 2010 and 2014 versions, though they both appear to indicate that Franklin’s four sons would share income from music and copyrights.
But under the 2014 will, Kecalf Franklin and grandchildren would get his mother’s main home in Bloomfield Hills, which was valued at $1.1m when she died but is worth much more today.
The older will said Kecalf, 53, and Edward Franklin, 64, “must take business classes and get a certificate or a degree” to benefit from the estate. That provision is not in the 2014 version.
Ted White II, who played guitar with Aretha Franklin, testified against the 2014 will, saying his mother typically would get important documents done “conventionally and legally” and with assistance from an attorney.
Don Wilson, an entertainment lawyer who represented Franklin for almost 30 years, told NBC he insisted she have a will and a trust as part of her estate planning.
“But she was a very private person and I think she didn’t want to share that information with another individual, such as an attorney. I think that’s why, for the longest time, she didn’t go into someone’s office and do formal planning, She went ahead and wrote them up herself,” he said.
Franklin was a global star for decades, known especially for hits such as Think, I Say a Little Prayer and Respect.
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