As you may know, Aretha Franklin's funeral took place on Friday in Detroit and it was a star-studded affair with names from the world of entertainment, sport and politics attending to pay their respects.
However, it also generated some controversy when the bishop officiating the funeral was forced to publicly apologise to Ariana Grande for inappropriately touching her and making a joke about her name.
Now, the ceremony has come in for more criticism - this time from Franklin's family themselves, who complained that the pastor delivering the eulogy - Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. - was 'offensive'. Williams was criticised for politicising the eulogy with comments such as "black lives must not matter until black people start respecting black lives and stop killing ourselves", at which Stevie Wonder yelled out 'Black lives matter!".
He also described a home without a father being akin to 'abortion after birth', which was seen as offensive to Franklin herself, who raised four children on her own.
The singer's nephew Vaughn Franklin spoke on behalf of the family, saying "He spoke for 50 minutes and at no time did he properly eulogise her" and that Franklin had never asked for Williams to eulogise her at her funeral in the first place. The family had chosen him because he spoke at other Franklin family events in the past and described the eulogy as "very, very distasteful".
Williams, on the other hand, did not apologise for any of his comments. “I understand it,” he said. “I regret it. But I’m sorry they feel that way.”
