Aretha Franklin Threatens to Sue Over Unauthorized Biography

The “Queen of Soul,”  Aretha Franklin is reportedly threatening to sue famed biographer David Ritz for his tell-all book, “Respect” published by Little, Brown and Company.  Franklin is beyond very upset about the reportedly controversial book, which was 25 years in the making, stating that the author is making false claims about her, one of them being that she was promiscuous in her younger days, according to the New York Post’s Page Six.

Franklin has always been an extremely guarded individual about her private life.  Besides discussing in the book the early separation of her parents, the challenge of becoming a teenage mother, a string of controlling relationships and multiple bouts with alcoholism, depression and insecurity, Ritz reportedly interviewed a chorus of friends, family, associates and peers about the 72-year-old singer.  He contends that during the 1950s, as Franklin and her father toured the gospel circuit, it was referred to as the “Sex Circus,” a sexual free-for-all that involved not only same-sex but hetero couplings as well.

Songstress Etta James, who also toured with Franklin as a youth, reportedly co-signed on Ritz’s allegations in the book about Franklin’s sex drive, stating, “I can understand Aretha not wanting to talk about that . . . Who wants to admit that you’re praising the Lord at the 8 p.m. service and servicing some drop-dead gorgeous hunk of a singer an hour later? Aretha and I started out before we were teenagers . . . we wanted to experience it all. I wouldn’t use the expression sexually active, I’d say sexually overactive.”

Ritz reportedly sees his book as a tribute to  Franklin’s dynamic career in a business that can be spiritually, emotionally and physically brutal.  Franklin, however, refers to the book as pure muck, telling the Detroit News, “There’s a very trashy, trashy book on the street . . . It’s lies, lies, lies and then more lies.” Franklin adds, “I’m talking to a criminal attorney. If this isn’t defamation, I don’t know what would be.”

The truth according to David Ritz is:

Well, we are reading that book right now and David Ritz stated he was working with Aretha for many many years on this book but she never wanted to get down to the root of many issues that needed to be addressed. He stated she wanted to paint a picture of what her childhood and life have been and not what it actually was. He says she guarded her past to keep from feeling the pain but her close family members and friends agree that she is very private and they have contributed to the book's authenticity of her actual life. Aretha may not have given her blessings but according to her he told her he was going to write it without her even though he'd would have rather not have.

She adds:

But Franklin has alleged that the latest book is distorted. In a statement, Franklin said: “As many of you are aware, there is a very trashy book out there full of lies and more lies about me. … (The writer’s) actions are obviously vindictive because I edited out some crazy statements he had the gall to try and put in my book written 15 years ago. Evidently, he has been carrying this hatred ever since.”

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