Aretha Franklin's 4 Children: All About Clarence, Edward, Teddy and Kecalf

Aretha Franklin was the Queen of Soul, but she was also the matriarch of her sizable family, including her four sons: Clarence Franklin, Edward Franklin, Teddy Richards and Kecalf Franklin.

The “Respect” singer was extremely private and didn’t speak much about her boys, but they were always part of her life. “She’s not atypical in her privacy, she’s just extreme,” biographer David Ritz told PEOPLE in 2018. “I think her strategy for emotional survival was idealization of her life in general. When you tend to idealize things, you don’t have to deal with a lot of the tough realities.”

Aretha welcomed her first son, Clarence Franklin, when she was just a preteen. “I still wanted to get out and hang out with my friends,” she told Ebony in 1995 about becoming a mom so young. “I wanted to be in two places at the same time. But my grandmother helped me a lot, and my sister and my cousin. They would babysit so I could get out occasionally.”

A few years later, she gave birth to her second son, Edward Franklin, at the age of 15. In 1961, when she was 19 years old, Aretha married music manager Ted White, and the pair welcomed a son, Ted White Jr., in 1964. Aretha and Ted divorced in 1969, and just one year later, the singer gave birth to her youngest son, Kecalf Cunningham, with her road manager Ken Cunningham.

While her children mainly stayed out of the spotlight, her four sons publicly grieved the loss of the "matriarch and rock of our family" after the singer's death from pancreatic cancer at the age of 76 on Aug. 16, 2018.

“In one of the darkest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our heart,” the family said in a statement. “We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family. The love she had for her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and cousins knew no bounds.”

Franklin was without a will at the time of her death, leaving her three sons Edward, Kecalf and Ted White Jr. embroiled in a legal battle regarding two handwritten documents — one from 2010 and one from 2014 — that were discovered in the late singer's home (according to the Associated Press, Clarence lives under legal guardianship and did not participate in the trial).

While both documents called for the brothers to share income from their mother's music and copyrights, the AP reported that the 2014 document allowed Kecalf and her grandchildren to inherit Aretha's home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. A probate trial started in Michigan in July 2023, and a jury ultimately ruled in favor of the will from 2014. After the verdict was delivered, the Associated Press reported that Franklin's grandchildren stepped forward to hug Kecalf and Edward.

“I’m very, very happy. I just wanted my mother’s wishes to be adhered to,” said Kecalf, according to the Associated Press. “We just want to exhale right now. It’s been a long five years for my family, my children.”

The will was eventually carried out by a judge in November 2023.

Read on to learn all about Aretha Franklin’s four sons.

Clarence Franklin, 69

Aretha welcomed her first son, Clarence, on Jan. 28, 1955, in Detroit, Michigan. She named him after her father, Clarence LaVaughn Franklin, who was a minister and civil rights activist.

Aretha was a preteen at the time and never publicly revealed who Clarence’s father was. She later confirmed in a handwritten will that Edward Jordan Sr. fathered her two older children but “never made any contribution to [their] welfare, future or past, monetarily, material, spiritual, etc."

“Aretha went back to school after having Clarence,” the artist’s sister Erma said in Ritz’s 2014 biography Respect. “She was an excellent student who did well in all her classes.”

Clarence went on to write several songs, some of which Aretha even sang and recorded herself. According to court papers obtained by The New York Times, Clarence was diagnosed with an undisclosed mental illness and spent time in various assisted living facilities. He was not involved in the legal dispute between his three brothers, though both wills in question stated that the singer's estate must financially support him.

Edward Franklin, 67

On Jan. 22, 1957, Aretha welcomed her second son, Edward, in Detroit, Michigan. After giving birth to Edward, Aretha dropped out of school to focus on her music career, which meant Eddie spent a lot of time with his grandmother, Big Mama.

“We were part of that generation of young female singers who definitely sacrificed time with our kids to attend to our careers. We did so knowingly,” Arthea's oldest sister said in Respect. “We also did so with heavy guilt.”

Eddie followed his mother's footsteps in the music industry, working as a gospel singer and even recording a cover of “This Christmas” with his mom. “I’ve worked with her before ... we knocked the song out in two or three takes,” he said of the experience.

In 2010, Eddie was badly beaten in an attack by three men at a Detroit gas station and required surgery to wire his jaw shut. Neither he nor his mother spoke out about the attack, though Aretha did confirm the attack in a statement to Billboard while clarifying some misinformation about the situation.

When Aretha died, Eddie gave a touching performance of Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Mercy Me” as a tribute to her at her funeral.

Teddy Richards, 59

In 1961, Aretha married Ted White at age 19, and he quickly began managing her. They welcomed son Ted White Jr. — who goes by Teddy Richards professionally — in February 1964 in Detroit. Just a few years later, however, Aretha divorced Ted amid reports of domestic abuse (according to a 1968 TIME story, he "roughed her up" more than once).

While most of Aretha’s children lived together with her and her family in Detroit, Teddy grew up mostly under the care of his father. Still, he was close with his mom and spent decades playing backup guitar in her band. Despite his mom's support, Teddy told the Detroit Free Press in 2021 that his dad was more reluctant about him entering the music business.

“What he emphasized in our home was not showbiz but education,” Teddy said of his father. “He was about staying as far as away from it as possible. He knew the pratfalls, the things most people don’t think about, in the music business. He wanted to put me on a different track.”

Regardless, Teddy broke out to become a singer-songwriter on his own and has performed with Nelly Furtado, Joe Cocker, Seal, Lenny Kravitz and INXS and released several albums of his work.

"I've evolved from a self-taught guitarist into a producer, engineer and accomplished tunesmith; I truly love music and enjoy the journey that it's taken me on," Teddy wrote in his bio while announcing his third album, Solitaire. He also describes himself as “Southwest Florida’s #1 solo entertainer” on his website.

While speaking to the Detroit Free Press in 2021, Teddy opened up about the difficulty he faced trying to create his own identity as a musician while being the son of one of the most famous singers of all time.

“I learned quite early, especially when dealing with journalists or people tied to the industry, it was very easy to be exploited as ‘the son of Aretha,’ ” he said. “If you’re trying to do something in your own name, making your own way in the world, it’s going to be impossible if that’s how people know you. It would allow them to ignore your accomplishments.”

However, the musician was dedicated to forging his own path.

“To some folks, it might look like, ‘He was denying his own mother.’ It’s not that at all,” Teddy said. “I love both my parents dearly. But it’s important to be your own man, stand on your own feet, handle your own business.”

Kecalf Franklin, 54

Aretha welcomed her youngest son, Kecalf Cunningham (who also goes by Kecalf Franklin) on March 28, 1970. His name is a combination of his mom’s initials — A.L.F — and his father Ken E. Cunningham’s. Ken was Aretha’s road manager at the time.

Kecalf had a career as a gospel rapper and performed on stage with his mom several times. He's also the father of several children who, like their famous grandmother, are also singer-songwriters.

Kecalf's daughter Grace even auditioned for American Idol; her audition aired during a February 2022 episode. "I don't think I could fully grasp the fact that [my grandmother] was known worldwide," she said at the time. "Because to me, she was always grandma ... I was really close to my grandma. I got to see her all the time. I got to travel with her a lot."

Following Aretha's death, Kecalf spoke out passionately against the Jennifer Hudson-led biopic Respect released in 2021. In a lengthy Facebook post, he wrote, “How can you make a movie about a person and not talk to the person’s [sic] sons or grandchildren about important information? How can you put a person’s [sic] family (image) in a book and not ask permission?”

Kecalf also became involved in a fight over his late mother's estate, claiming that his mother's 2014 will stated that she wanted him to serve as the estate’s representative. (Aretha's niece Sabrina Owens served as the estate executor following Aretha's death.)

In July 2023, a jury ruled the 2014 will valid — allowing Kecalf and his children to inherit Franklin's "crown jewel" Michigan home, which was valued at $1.1 million in 2018, per the AP.