Aretha Franklin responds to her death rumours

Los Angeles Nov 22 (IANS) Singer Aretha Franklin has reassured fans that she is alive and well following rumours of her death.

After the hashtag #RipArethaFranklin began trending on Twitter on Tuesday morning the singer 75 told usmagazine.com: "I m doing well generally all tests have come back good."

"I ve lost a lot of weight due to side effects of medicine it affects your weight … Thanks for your concern " she added in an emailed statement.

The false report which was initially started by a fake Aretha Franklin Twitter account gained more than 15 000 mentions.

The post read: "It is with sad news that we announce the passing of the ‘Queen Of Soul Aretha Franklin 1942-2017."

Fans immediately reacted assuming the tweet was true.

--IANS
nn/bg