Here are Aretha Franklin’s two handwritten wills
The two handwritten wills at the center of a years-long legal battle over Aretha Franklin’s estimated $6 million estate are barely legible — with crossed-out words and scribblings in the margins — but must be deciphered by jurors, who were shown large posters of one of the documents at trial this week.
The panel saw four blown-up versions of the 2014 document — found in a spiral notebook crammed under couch cushions at Franklin’s suburban Detroit home in 2019 — during the proceedings in Oakland County Probate Court in Michigan on Monday.
Two of the Queen of Soul’s sons, Kecalf and Edward Franklin, believe those papers should be honored as their mom’s will, while their brother, Ted White II, aka Teddy Richards, wants a document from 2010 to be found valid instead.
Judge Jennifer Callaghan on Monday ruled the jury must only determine if the most recent 2014 document is a valid will. But that may be no easy task — as all the pages contain notes in the margins, crossed out words and are messily written.
Kecalf, 53, told jurors Monday that his mom carried out many tasks — such as phone calls, reading mail, signing documents and even sleeping — “on the couch.”
In the March 31, 2014 papers, the “Chain of Fools” singer — who died of pancreatic cancer at 76 in 2018 — crossed out the name “Teddy” and wrote in Kecalf and Edward as the executors of her will.
Meanwhile, the June 21, 2010 document — found locked in a cabinet in the Bloomfield Hills house with another one-page handwritten will from later that same year — states Kecalf and Edward can’t benefit from Franklin’s estate until they take “business administration classes or get a certificate or degree.”
It also lists White — a musician who played guitar during his mother’s performances — and Franklin’s niece, Sabrina Owens, as the executors.
White, 60, told the jury that he spent a great deal of time working with his mom administratively and “every other document that she ever signed was something that was done conventionally and legally,” with the help of an attorney.
The “Respect” singer appears to have wanted all three sons to “split evenly” the money in her bank accounts, according to the later document.
She also designated that the trio split her copyrights, songs, awards and interests in a biopic, the 2014 papers state.
Kecalf and his kids were given her primary home in Bloomfield Hills and its furnishings and cars — while she appears to have gifted other houses to White and Edward, the more recent papers say.
It also appeared as though the hitmaker wanted her grandchildren to “equally” benefit from her recordings with Atlantic Records and Warner Media, the newer documents say.
Franklin wanted her gowns to be auctioned at Sotheby’s or to be donated to the Smithsonian museum, according to the 2014 record.
Both documents specified that Franklin’s other son, Clarence Franklin, who is under a guardianship, should be given money on a weekly basis to provide for all of his needs.
Jurors heard a statement from Owens — who was not present at trial — about how she scoured her aunt’s home for a will.
“So when I got to the sofa, I lifted up that far right cushion and there was three notebooks there,” Owens said in a deposition read to the jury.
The “I Say a Little Prayer” star’s four children would equally benefit from her assets if it’s determined that there is no legal will.
At the time of Franklin’s death, her estate was estimated to be worth $80 million — but the value has been dramatically depleted after many years of unpaid taxes and high legal bills.
The estate now has assets totaling less than $6 million, according to a report by the BBC.
The jury is slated to hear closing arguments at the brief trial later Tuesday.
With Post wires
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