Is Aretha Franklin’s True Will the One Found in the Couch or a Cabinet?

When Aretha Franklin, known as the Queen of Soul, passed in 2018 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, she passed without a known will. It was believed her estate would pass to her four sons; however, months after the funeral, family members found documents in her suburban Detroit home. 

Her four sons have battled in a Michigan probate court over which document is legitimate, and today they head to trial to determine the precise distribution of Franklin’s estate.

The jury must decide between the handwritten note in a spiral notebook found under a couch cushion is dated 2014 and substantially favors one son or the papers found in the locked cabinet are dated 2010 and favor another son. Another option is to decide that neither document is a legitimate will and revert back to the equal division of her estate between the four sons.

For more information see Julia Jacobs “Is Artetha Franklin’s True Will the One Found in the Couch or a Cabinet?” The New York Times, July 9, 2023.

Special thanks to Lewis Saret (Attorney, Washington, D.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.