The legendary Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, recently sat down for tea with popular talk show host Wendy Williams and the two discussed Franklin’s struggle to lose weight, her recent health scare and her appreciation for Williams’ critical words of Whitney Houston.
In part one of the televised interview, which was filmed in Franklin’s home city of Detroit, Franklin reveals that she knew it was time to lose weight after seeing unflattering pictures of herself.
“I’ve been looking at a lot of pictures, you know, and I was saying, ‘you are entirely too fat for words,’ ” said Franklin before bursting into laughter. “I’m getting close to my normal weight. I’m only a dress size away now.
Although the veteran singer is able to laugh about it now, she explains that her journey to lose 85 pounds was a difficult one.
“I was doing everything you could do to lose that weight and it’s hard. It’s just really hard,” admits Franklin. “When you love food and when you’ve done a high energy concert, you know a carrot is not going to work … [but] you can’t continue eating things that will hurt you eventually.”
In the interview, Franklin also discusses her much talked about health problems, revealing that a near crippling pain in her sidecued her that something was wrong.
“The pain was so hard though that it almost brought me to my knees. And then maybe a month or so after that I was in Boston in concert and I got another pain in the side,” explains Franklin. “So I said, ‘the concerts are over. I have to go and find out what is wrong.’”
Franklin, however, becomes elusive when discussing the reports that she had abdominal surgery in December.
In the interview, Franklin also discusses her goddaughter, Whitney Houston, and thanks Williams for criticizing Houston for not owning up to her own bad habits and drug addiction back in 2009, which caused Williams to tear up.
“Before we go any further, I would like to say I think you did a very good thing for Whitney in speaking in the way that you did at one point. It paid off,” said Franklin. “Sometimes all it takes is someone to say certain things.”
What do you think of Franklin’s interview? –nicholas robinson
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