Aretha Franklin’s family ‘disrespected’ by Genius: Aretha producers and call fans to boycott the series

Aretha Franklin’s family have called on fans to ‘boycott’ NatGeo’s limited series Genius: Aretha.

The life of the late singing legend, who passed away aged 76 in 2018, will be depicted in the NatGeo limited series, with British actress Cynthia Erivo in the lead role.

However, the icon’s relatives have accused the producers of ‘disrespecting’ them and snubbing their attempts to work with them on the series.

In a TikTok video, Aretha’s granddaughter, Grace Franklin, said: ‘As the immediate family, we feel that it’s important to be involved with any biopic of my grandma’s life, as it’s hard to get any accurate depiction of anyone’s life without speaking to the ones closest to them.

‘During the process of writing, directing, and filming this movie, we’ve reached out to Genius as a family on multiple occasions where we have been disrespected and told we will not be worked with.’

Grace added: ‘As the immediate family – emphasis on immediate – we do not support this film and we ask that you also do not support this film, as we feel extremely disrespected, and we feel there will be many inaccuracies about my grandmother’s life.’

Grace’s father, Kecalf Franklin, who is Aretha’s son, made similar claims in a recent interview with Rolling Stones, stating: ‘We had our lawyers reach out to them and see if we could have some type of input and see the film and say what we like and what we didn’t like about it.

‘And the report that we got back was saying that it was too late, production had already wrapped up and that they didn’t want to work with us. It was basically too late.’

He told the publication: ‘What we’ve found out in the past is that usually when people don’t want to work with you, that is a prelude to some type of unprofessional behavior or a prelude to some type of untruth or slander, so we’re not quite sure where we’re going to see in this series.’

However, NatGeo has insisted that they have told the Respect hitmaker’s story in an ‘honest and authentic way’.

They wrote in an official statement: ‘We think we have a shared goal here – to honour and celebrate the life and legacy of Aretha Franklin. We can tell you that everyone who worked on ‘Genius: Aretha’ approached telling her story with the intention to respect Ms. Franklin in every aspect of the series and in every decision we made.

‘The studio worked diligently to attain the endorsement of Aretha’s estate, which we are grateful to have. We worked with many people who knew Ms. Franklin – from Clive Davis to members of her family’s estate – to make sure we told her story in an honest and authentic way.’

Genius: Aretha is airing on NatGeo between March 21-24.

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