A will of Aretha Franklin's found hidden under sofa cushions after her untimely passing due to pancreatic cancer in 2018 is valid, a jury rules. This ends nearly five years of legal contention over which of two handwritten documents, neither prepared by a lawyer, was the legendary soul singer's will.
During the two-day trial in Michigan, two of Franklin's four sons claimed one attempted to "disinherit" them from Franklin's estimated $6 million fortune, BBC reported, asserting that this document rejects the intentions of another written in 2010. Since the jury ruled the document written in 2014 is considered Franklin's will, the three sons will split her music royalties and bank funds evenly, and Franklin's youngest son and his children will inherit her $1.2 million gated mansion. (Franklin's oldest son was not part of the estate dispute.)
Franklin's niece, the estate's executor, found the two documents in the late singer's Detroit home. The first document, dated June 2010, was discovered in a locked desk drawer. The second document that the jury ruled as valid for the singer's will was found in a drawing notebook stuffed beneath the living room sofa cushions.
The veteran singer's net worth was estimated at $80 million after her death but recent evaluations and years of unpaid taxes have significantly decreased her overall net worth.
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