Alas, the battle over Aretha Franklin's estate is over after a jury has officially decided that a handwritten document found in her couch can be considered a valid will.
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Discovered just a year after her passing in 2018, late singer Aretha Franklin's niece, Sabrina Owens, found the document tucked away in a notebook under a couch in the Queen of Soul's Detroit home. The new will, dated March 2014, shows a significant difference in comparison to the 2010 version.
The decision settles a battle that has been ongoing between Franklin’s sons Ted White Jr. and Kecalf and Edward Franklin, after a will drafted in 2010 and found in a locked filing cabinet was first favored.
However, it has been ruled under Michigan law any document authored by Franklin can be interpreted as a valid will. According to TMZ, missing from the newer 2014 couch document are requirements for Kecalf and Edward to complete business classes before being named as executors of Franklin's $6 million estate. The name "Teddy" is also apparently crossed out.
Both parties have now been ordered to file briefs and attend a status conference to discuss some of the 2010 will's provisions and to possibly name an official executor of Aretha's estate.
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