Aretha Franklin to sue ex-ghostwriter over 'unauthorized biography'

Aretha Franklin will sue her former ghostwriter, David Ritz, over a new unauthorized biography, dubbed as 'Respect.'

The biography makes wild claims about 72-year-old's sexual promiscuity on the 1950s gospel circuit, known by insiders as the "Sex Circus," when she was a young teen, the New York Post reported.

Sources revealed that the Queen of Soul was enormously upset by the book just released by Little, Brown and Company.

Ritz, who penned Franklin's 1999 memoir 'From These Roots,' now claimed that material was cut by the fiercely private singer from that first tome, including that the gospel circuit, which Franklin and her own father toured on, was known as the "Sex Circus," with "men-and-men and women-and-women hookups."

The book, narrated through interviews with friends, family and associates, also paints an inspirational picture of the American singer, who lost her mother at 10, had two kids in her teens, and overcame an abusive marriage thanks to her considerable talent and spirit.