Aretha Franklin passed away two weeks ago after a quiet battle with pancreatic cancer.
As she made her way inside Aretha’s funeral on Friday, fellow Detroit legend Gladys Knight revealed she’s also battling the same illness.
Update: Detroit News has updated their initial report, saying Gladys does NOT have pancreatic cancer.
“We shared the fact that we had the same disease,” the seven-time Grammy Award winner said during a live broadcast with the TV station.
Javier Delgado, her publicist, said she does not have cancer and he was not sure what she meant by the comments in the broadcast.
When asked what Knight meant by her remark about sharing the same disease, Delgado said: “I’m not sure. Maybe she meant she feels her pain. But she does not have cancer.”
Praise God! Gladys further clarified that she DID have stage one breast cancer — you can read her statement here.
Original story below…
via Detroit News:
While attending services for Aretha Franklin at Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, fellow recording artist Gladys Knight, 74, told WDIV (Channel 4) Thursday she has pancreatic cancer.
It was unclear how long ago Knight, a seven-time Grammy Award winner, was diagnosed with the cancer.
Franklin, who publicly confirmed her diagnosis in late 2010, and asked her audience for prayers following a free performance in Detroit in June 2017, survived pancreatic cancer for nearly eight years before she died last week — far longer than normal, medical experts say.
Only 20 percent of those diagnosed with the disease live beyond one year, while only 7 percent survive five years after being diagnosed, Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society and a medical oncologist and epidemiologist at Emory University in Atlanta told The Detroit News.
During a Monday interview with Us Weekly in which she shared her memories of Franklin, Knight did not disclose her own illness, but discussed the finite nature of life.
“The Lord tells us where we are going and tells us when we are coming,” Knight said. “So I’m not overly upset about (Franklin’s death), and he knows how much each one of us can bear, and he calls us home with those things in mind. That’s the way I feel about it, because he loves us like that.”
Pancreatic cancer makes up about 3 percent of all cancers in the United States and about 7 percent of all cancer deaths. The American Cancer Society estimates about 44,330 Americans will die of pancreatic cancer this year.
As of now, Detroit News is the only outlet reporting on Gladys’ cancer revelation. We’re keeping her in our prayers.
Update:Detroit residents confirm they heard Gladys say it herself on the local news outside Aretha’s funeral.
