Fans worried about soul chanteuse Aretha Franklin's recent health problems should know that this week she told Jet, "The problem has been resolved."
As for reports that pancreatic cancer was the reason for her surgery last month, Franklin would rather that people just minded their own business."I am not going to even deal with that," she told the magazine. "I don't have to talk about my health with anybody other than my doctors."
However, she did open up about the symptoms that let her know something was wrong.
She recalls having "a very hard pain in my side" during a concert in Toronto last year. "I had a colonoscopy and it showed nothing was wrong. I associated the pain in my side with the colonoscopy that I had within a day or two before. I got up at 2 o'clock in the morning and called the doctor who did the colonoscopy and told him what was happening. He said, 'Miss Franklin, whatever it is, it is not from the colonoscopy. You need to come home and have a CAT scan.' Thank God he said that because that unfolded everything, what the problem was and everything."
Franklin also thanked her fans for their prayers and support, while asking them to respect her privacy during her recovery. But who can blame fans for wanting to know how their favorite diva is doing? Get well soon, Aretha.
In other news: Scott Sisters Released.
Sheryl Huggins Salomon is senior editor-at-large of The Root and a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based editorial consultant. Follow her on Twitter.