The real estate holdings of the iconic singer Aretha Franklin have been awarded to her three of her sons based on the instructions of a handwritten will found between cushions of the late star’s couch.
The Associated Press reported the judge overseeing Franklin’s estate made his decision four months after a jury affirmed the validity of the will, which Franklin wrote in longhand in 2014 and signed with a smiley face in the letter “A.” The will was discovered in Franklin’s suburban Detroit home in 2019 and overrides another handwritten will created in 2010.
Kecalf Franklin will inherit the suburban home and Edward Franklin receives another property. A third son, Ted White II, was given a house in Detroit, but that was sold by Franklin’s estate for $300,000 before a legal squabble over which of the two wills reflected Franklin’s wishes; White is seeking the proceeds from that sale.
Aretha Franklin had four homes at the time of her death in 2018. The fate of the fourth home was not spelled out by the singer, and it will likely be sold with the proceeds shared by the three aforementioned children and a fourth son.
Photo: Aretha Franklin in 1968, courtesy Wikimedia Commons
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