UPDATE: 8/16/2018 Aretha Franklin passed away at her Detroit home on Thursday. She was 76.
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UPDATE: 8/14/2018
Franklin’s nephew told PEOPLE that she is resting at home surrounded by loved ones.
“She’s alert, laughing, teasing, able to recognize people,” Tim Franklin told PEOPLE on Tuesday. “Family is there with her. She’s home.”
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UPDATE: 8/13/2018 5:40 p.m. EST
New reports indicate Aretha Franklin is not only gravely ill, but that her death is “imminent,” according to PEOPLE. Sources near to the iconic singer told the publication that close friends and family were told she could “go at any time,” over two weeks ago.
“She has been ill for a long time,” a longtime friend told PEOPLE. “She did not want people to know and she didn’t make it public.”
Read more on Franklin below.
Aretha Franklin is reported to be “gravely ill” and surrounded by family and friends in Detroit, Showbiz411.com reported on Sunday.
The singer, dubbed “the Queen of Soul,” had canceled scheduled performances, under doctor’s orders earlier this year, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on March 25, her 76th birthday, and at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in April, according to The Detroit News.
Franklin’s last performance was in New York at Elton John’s AIDS Foundation gala, where she performed her hit song “Freeway of Love” and her 1968 cover of Dionne Warwick’s “I Say a Little Prayer.”
A close friend of Franklin, radio host Tom Joyner, reportedly confirmed the news this morning that the singer has been in a hospice for a week.
Franklin has been dogged by rumors about her failing health for years. In 2010, she had surgery to remove a tumor that sent her to the hospital and denied reports that she had pancreatic cancer, according to contactmusic.com.
