A shocking new book paints Aretha Franklin as a jealous monster – and now the Queen of Soul is threatening to sue the author!
The National ENQUIRER got a sneak peek of the unauthorized bio, “Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin,” which claims Aretha especially resented Whitney Houston, and tensions between the two exploded in 1989 when they sang “It Isn’t, It Wasn’t, It Ain’t Never Gonna Be.”
“Aretha kept calling it a mismatch,” her late agent, Ruth Bowen, once told the book’s author, David Ritz.
“She said that Whitney lacked her wisdom and maturity as a recording artist, but I just think Aretha was nervous about being outsung by someone from the next generation.”
But Aretha exclusively told The ENQUIRER that David is “delusional,” and “a vindictive person, obviously full of hate, who quotes people that are deceased and (who) cannot defend themselves.
“This business that I am supposed to be jealous of Diana (Ross), Barbra (Streisand) or Whitney (Houston) is just plain crazy,” the 72-year-old said.
“After 18 Grammy Awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Arts and other awards, far too many to mention, please, give me one reason why I would be jealous of any of them.”
Meanwhile, Whitney acted “like a furry puppy dog,” while Aretha “was like a boxer staring down her opponent,” according to another source quoted in the book.
“Aretha was so tough that she herself thought she might have overdone it. A couple of days later, she called me to ask whether I thought she could call Whitney to apologize.”
Aretha also blew up when Anita Baker’s 1986 album, “Rapture,” outsold her own.
Ruth told the author: “None of this made Miss Thing happy. She used to say, ‘If I toured as much as Anita, I’d be selling in the millions myself.’”
The exposé also dishes on Aretha’s time in the 1950s gospel circuit, dubbed “a sex circus” by the late Ray Charles.
“Who wants to admit that you’re praising the Lord at the 8 p.m. service and servicing some drop-dead gorgeous hunk of a singer an hour later?” R&B legend Etta James told the author.
