Superstar Aretha Franklin is making news with the announcement that she is engaged to her longtime friend William Wilkerson. The Queen of Soul’s engagement took place over the holidays and the wedding is rumored to take place this coming summer.
This good news for Aretha also brings to light some of the health scares that have kept her in the news in recent years. She bounced back after a health scare and had surgery in December 2024 due to extreme pain in her side. She did say that the surgery she had would add 15 to 20 years to her life. The cause of that pain was never disclosed by Franklin. Although there were some reports that she was suffering from pancreatic cancer, Franklin communicated that she did not have cancer. Franklin does, however, have type 2 diabetes, which brings with a host of health problems.
Additionally, many fans have grown concerned about Franklin’s rapidly rising weight when seeing her at performances and award shows over the past couple of years. Franklin decided to do something about her growing weight when she declared she is “entirely too fat.” She boasted that she has lost 85 pounds and is looking much healthier. Healthy weight loss can reverse type 2 diabetes, and you have to hope that will be the case for Aretha. (more…)
