Jury declares Aretha Franklin’s handwritten will as valid
On Tuesday 11 July, an American jury found that a handwritten document by Aretha Franklin found in the cushions of her couch after her death in 2018 as valid. ALSO READ: Aretha Franklin’s granddaughter Grace steals the show on ‘American Idol’ WILL TURNS BROTHERS AGAINST ONE ANOTHER When Aretha Franklin died five years ago at 76 […]
On Tuesday 11 July, an American jury found that a handwritten document by Aretha Franklin found in the cushions of her couch after her death in 2018 as valid.
ALSO READ: Aretha Franklin’s granddaughter Grace steals the show on ‘American Idol’
WILL TURNS BROTHERS AGAINST ONE ANOTHER
When Aretha Franklin died five years ago at 76 years old, the Respect singer left no formal, typewritten will, instead she left a handwritten, hard to decipher will that was later discovered in her Detroit home.
According to the Daily Mail, two handwritten wills, one written in 2010 and another in 2014 became the center of a five year-long battle over the Queen of Soul’s $ 6million estate, which turned her sons against one another.
The will found in 2010 was allegedly discovered in a locked cabinet. and the other found under the cushions of a couch in the singers home.
The difference between the two documents is who Aretha left as the executors of her estate. In the 2010 document Aretha assigned her son Teddy Richards and niece Sabrina Owens as the executors of her estate, and in the 2014 document Aretha left her other sons Kecalf and Edward as the executors of estate.
ALSO READ: Aretha Franklin tops Rolling Stone’s 500 best songs of all time list [watch]
ALL SONS, EXCEPT ONE LISTED AS A BENEFICIARY
The difficult to read documents is said to distribute all of the legendary singer’s assets including jewellery, furs, real estate, stereo equipment and music royalties to her family members.
Due to his mental illness diagnosis, the eldest son, Clarence, according to court papers lives with assistance in a group home outside of Detroit.
In one of her wills, his mother instructed her other sons to check in on Clarence weekly to “oversee his needs”, however in the 2014 will, he is not listed as a beneficiary.
The six-person jury’s decision is said to particularly favour Aretha’s son, Kecalf and his children. It is said that they will be inheriting the singer’s primary residence, a mansion in an affluent Detroit suburb and her cars.
ALSO READ: ‘Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning’ set to break box office records