Why Aretha Franklin’s Sons Are Still Fighting Over Her Estate Almost 10 Years After Her Death
Just when you thought the battle between the late Aretha Franklin‘s sons involving her assets was over, a new report is unfortunately proving otherwise. Now we have new details on why the estate issues haven’t been resolved.
In July 2023, we told you that a resolution had finally been reached following a highly contested, five-year battle between Franklin’s sons and the two wills she left behind. Although a jury ruled at the time that all four men would split their mother’s music and copyright income, some still unaccounted-for items are causing a ruckus.
Franklin’s two sons, Kecalf Franklin Cunningham and Ted White II, are embroiled in a legal battle over the copyright interests in songs including “Think” and “Dr. Feelgood.” They’re also having a hard time agreeing on specific financial arrangements for their eldest brother, Clarence, as well as how to divvy up hundreds of items stored across multiple Detroit-area storage units, according to a new report for The Detroit Free Press.
Some of those items include “dozens of reel-to-reel tapes and video recordings” that were previously held at Franklin’s Bloomfield Hills home. Among the videos are “rehearsal footage from her landmark 1998 ‘VH1 Divas’ appearance, a 2003 concert and her 1996 ‘Christmas at New Bethel’ gospel event.”
However, White has alleged that the items are being kept in an “inadequate storage” facility and is arguing that they should be moved elsewhere. He’s also expressed dissatisfaction with Cunningham’s alleged decision to install security cameras to surveil the units without the other siblings’ input.
This longstanding dispute has resulted in over 1,400 court filings since the “Respect” singer died in 2018. Although none of the brothers has spoken publicly about the current dispute, Franklin’s longtime attorney, David Bennett, told The Detroit Free Press that he has tried to get her sons to find common ground.
Explaining that he initially tried to get the brothers to all come together and agree on things, Bennet said: “We found [the wills], here they are, sit down and come to an agreement as to what they say. [But] everybody wanted something to the exclusion of somebody else. Which is the reason there is probate court.”
