Update: Jury says newest will penned by Aretha Franklin is valid
A handwritten will penned by singer Aretha Franklin that was found in her couch after her death is valid in the state of Michigan, a jury decided Tuesday.
The will has been the centrepiece in a dispute involving Franklin’s sons and the division of her assets. Sons, Kecalf Franklin and Edward Franklin, were advocating that the newer version of the will should be honoured. An earlier version of the will dated June 2010, stated that Franklin’s third son, Ted White II, would be her estate’s co-executor without his brothers.
Both wills were discovered around the same time when Franklin’s niece organised her home in Detroit following Franklin’s death. Franklin did not leave behind a formal written will.
Kecalf is listed as the co-executor in the newer will and would stand to inherit The Queen of Soul’s $1.2m (£934,000) mansion. The older will specified that Kecalf and Edward “must take business classes and get a certificate or a degree” before they were entitled to their share of Franklin’s estate.
It has been reported that Franklin refused to write a will despite spending many years in ill health. Following her death, her estate was set to be split equally among her children until the wills were recovered nine months later in 2019.
The recent jury decision did not factor in three voicemail messages left by Franklin several months before her death which detailed a third will. The third will was never completed or recovered, leading it to be left out of the case.
The legitimacy of the newer will is likely set to help Kecalf and Edward in their fight for Franklin’s estate. White II has testified against the newer will, claiming his mother typically would get important documents done ‘conventionally and legally’ with assistance from an attorney.
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