Aretha Franklin’s handwritten will found in couch cushions is valid, jury decides

A handwritten will found under Aretha Franklin’s couch cushions after her death is valid and supersedes an earlier one that was locked in a cabinet, a jury decided Tuesday. 

Her son Ted White II has argued that the 2010 will that was locked away and notarized should override the 2014 one discovered in her couch because it was done more traditionally. 

"With all the time I spent working with her administratively ... every other document that she ever signed was something that was done conventionally and legally," he told the jury through his lawyer. 

The later will was found after the "Respect" singer’s niece, Sabrina Owens, searched her suburban Detroit home for documents following her death in 2018 without a formal will. 

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"You can take your will and leave it on the kitchen counter. It’s still your will," lawyer Charles McKelvie, who represented Franklin's sons Kecalf and Edward Franklin, said in closing arguments. 

Kecalf and Edward had argued that the 2014 will should override the 2010 will. 

"Says right here: ‘This is my will,’" lawyer Craig Smith added of the 2014 document. "She’s speaking from the grave, folks."

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Kecalf also repeatedly said in court that his mother often conducted important business on her couch, arguing the cushions weren't an odd place to find the will.

In both wills, Franklin says her four sons would share income from her music and copyrights. But in the 2014 version, Kecalf Franklin, not White, as in the 2010 version, was named as executor. 

Kecalf and his grandchildren also inherit her more than $1.1. million home in the 2014 version.  

Another provision in her 2010 will that said Kecalf, 53, and Edward, 64, "must take business classes and get a certificate or a degree" to benefit from her estate was dropped from the 2014 will. 

Owens explained how she found the 2014 will while she was managing Franklin’s estate immediately after her death. 

"She would use the kitchen and living room — that was about it," said Owens, who was not in court this week but whose testimony from a previous interview was read aloud. "So, when I got to the sofa, I lifted up that far right cushion and there was three notebooks there."

The jury gave its verdict after less than an hour deliberating in the trial that started Monday. 

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"I'm very, very happy," Kecalf said after the verdict. "I just wanted my mother's wishes to be adhered to. We just want to exhale right now. It's been a long five years for my family, my children."

White’s attorney, Ted Olson, said, "We were here to see what the jury would rule. We'll live with it."

The court battle has divided Franklin’s sons. At one point this week, Smith claimed that White "wants to disinherit his two brothers. Teddy wants it all."

Later, when asked about a possible rift between him and White, Kecalf said, "I love my brother with all my heart." 

Franklin’s fourth son, Clarence, who lives in an assisted living center, didn’t participate in the trial. 

There still will be discussions over whether some provisions of the 2010 will should be fulfilled and whether Kecalf could become executor of the estate. Judge Jennifer Callaghan told all sides to file briefs and attend a status conference next week.

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The last public accounting filed in March showed the estate had income of $3.9 million during the previous 12-month period and a similar amount of spending, including more than $900,000 in legal fees to various firms.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.