Celebrity News April 21, 2016
Aretha Franklin Remembers Prince, Speculates on How He Died
Singer Aretha Franklin remembered Prince today with MSNBC's Brian Williams.
In a phone interview, she called his death “surreal” and “unbelievable,” adding that the news “blew her away.”
“He was definitely an original and one of a kind,” Franklin said. “There truly was only one Prince.”
She continued, “Prince is gone, but the music will go on… Young adults and adults loved Prince, and there was a mystique about him.”
Aretha also speculated on his health, saying "They're saying flu-like symptoms. I'm wondering if it had anything to do with this Zika virus.”
Williams replied, "Yeah, this is a scary thing for a guy who was last reported to be suffering from the flu, and then suddenly for this very healthy individual… He was a vegan, he was a fitness buff, he was a dancer, he was physically very fit. For him to die of this..."
According to the CDC, people rarely die from Zika.
Their website says, “Zika virus disease (Zika) is a disease caused by the Zika virus, which is spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito. The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes). The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week after being bitten by an infected mosquito. People usually don't get sick enough to go to the hospital, and they very rarely die of Zika.”