How is Aretha Franklin’s health? Not good, according to reports from multiple publications.
The Queen of Soul is “gravely ill” in Detroit and is surrounding by loved ones, according to Showbiz 411 — and close friends have confirmed it.
“BREAKING NEWS: I am so saddened to report that the Queen of Soul and my good friend, Aretha Franklin is gravely ill,” Evrod Cassimy, a morning anchor with WDIV in Detroit, tweeted early Monday. “I spoke with her family members this morning. She is asking for your prayers at this time. I’ll have more details as I’m allowed to release.”
BREAKING NEWS: I am so saddened to report that the Queen of Soul and my good friend, Aretha Franklin is gravely ill. I spoke with her family members this morning. She is asking for your prayers at this time. I’ll have more details as I’m allowed to release.
— Evrod Cassimy (@EvrodCassimy) August 13, 2018
Another put it more bluntly: “Prepare yourself, she’s dying,” a source told TMZ when asked how is Aretha Franklin’s health, adding that she was down to 86 pounds.
Does Aretha Franklin have cancer?
Another source “close” to Franklin says she’s been battling cancer since 2010.
There were rumors that she had pancreatic cancer, but Franklin denied it.
“I don’t know where ‘pancreatic cancer’ came from,” she said in 2011. “I was sitting there reading the newspaper and it was saying someone in my family said that. No one in my family ever said that to anybody.”
She later confirmed she had a procedure to “add 15 or 20 more years” to her life, but wouldn’t give specifics.
“I am not one to do a lot of talking about my personal health or business,” she told Jet. “There are a lot of people who will talk about anything, as long as there is somebody listening. But I am not one of those people.”
Franklin’s last appearance on stage was in November 2017 at an Elton John AIDS Foundation event, telling WDIV that she was retiring afterward.
“I feel very, very enriched and satisfied with respect to where my career came from, and where it is now,” Franklin said. “I’ll be pretty much satisfied, but I’m not going to go anywhere and just sit down and do nothing. That wouldn’t be good either.”
