Aretha Franklin on Losing Weight – JET Magazine

Aretha Franklin gets candid about her battle with weight since she stopped smoking cigarettes in1992. “I was eating everything that I shouldn’t have: chocolate, Coca-Cola, hot spicy foods, all of that was affecting my voice,” Franklin tells JET. “It’s one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, lose the weight and the cigarettes.”

“There’s no question about it,” she said. “I ballooned, like 40 going north.” However, Franklin assures her fans that she has “no weight-related illness” such as diabetes, but is concentrating on the issue to make sure she stays healthy.

Now with a new trainer and nutritionist, and a treadmill, Franklin is finding a new lease on life and is ready to debut her new CD titled Jewels in the Crown: All Star Duets With the Queen, slated for a Nov. 13 release. Franklin teams up with American Idol superstar Fantasia and
Grammy Award winner John Legend. “This album shows why Aretha is in a class by herself,” says Clive Davis, chairman and CEO of BMG Label Group, who produced the album.

THE NOVEMBER 19, 2007 ISSUE OF JET IS ON SALE MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2007.