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The Most Uncomfortable Moments At Celeb Funerals

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Some of the most uncomfortable television moments of the decade didn’t happen on a stage or in a courtroom — they happened at funerals.

Grief already makes people say and do strange things, but hand a microphone to a celebrity mourner, a controversial pastor, or a jilted ex, and the results end up broadcast to millions. Nicki Swift’s rundown of the most cringe-inducing celebrity send-offs covers everything from a mysterious leak down Christina Aguilera’s legs to Bishop Charles H. Ellis II’s hands-on introduction of Ariana Grande, plus the family fallout that followed Chester Bennington’s and Aretha Franklin’s services.

• At Etta James’ January 2012 funeral, Christina Aguilera performed “At Last” while a dark drip ran down her legs — later confirmed to be spray tan reacting to nervous sweat, not the “leak” viewers speculated about online.
• Rev. Jasper Williams Jr.’s 50-minute eulogy at Aretha Franklin’s August 2018 funeral, in which he said black single mothers cannot raise boys into men and criticized Black Lives Matter, drew a public rebuke from Franklin’s nephew Vaughn Franklin, who called it “offensive and distasteful.”
• Bishop Charles H. Ellis II drew widespread criticism — and later issued an apology — after holding Ariana Grande with his hand pressed high against her chest during Franklin’s funeral and cracking a Taco Bell joke about her name, while cameras caught Bill Clinton staring at Grande during her performance.

The Aguilera Mystery That Wasn’t

Christina Aguilera was invited to honor Etta James by singing “At Last” at James’ January 2012 funeral, but the tribute quickly got overshadowed by something dripping down her legs mid-performance. Cameras caught her rubbing her legs together trying to hide whatever it was, and speculation online ran wild about what exactly was leaking during a memorial service. The explanation turned out to be far less scandalous than the internet’s imagination: her spray tan had started running because of nervous sweat, leaving a dark streak that read, from a distance, like something far worse.

A Eulogy That Overshadowed The Queen Of Soul

Aretha Franklin’s August 2018 funeral was supposed to be a celebration of a woman who redefined American music, but Rev. Jasper Williams Jr.’s 50-minute eulogy turned into the story instead. Williams used the pulpit to declare that black single mothers cannot raise boys to become men and to take aim at Black Lives Matter, a detour that had almost nothing to do with the mother of four being laid to rest. Franklin’s nephew, Vaughn Franklin, didn’t stay quiet about it, publicly denouncing the address as “offensive and distasteful” and accusing Williams of using her funeral to push his own agenda instead of properly honoring her.

Ellis, Grande, And An Apology Nobody Wanted To Give

The same service produced an even more talked-about moment when Bishop Charles H. Ellis II, officiating the funeral, put his arm around Ariana Grande as he introduced her to perform — except his hand landed high against her chest and stayed there. He followed it up with a joke referencing Taco Bell because of her last name, a bit that landed nowhere close to funny given the circumstances. The clip spread fast, forcing Ellis into a public apology, while separate footage of former President Bill Clinton fixed on Grande during her performance added another layer of discomfort to a funeral that had already generated one controversy that morning.

“Offensive and distasteful” — Vaughn Franklin’s verdict on the eulogy his aunt received.

Family Feuds That Played Out In Public

Aretha Franklin’s funeral wasn’t the only service where family tension spilled into view. When George Michael died in 2017, his ex-partner Kenny Goss later revealed that Michael’s on-and-off partner Fadi Fawaz arrived late to the funeral, got snubbed by family members, and skipped the wake entirely — a quiet but unmistakable sign of how strained those relationships had become. The same dynamic showed up in far louder form after Chester Bennington’s August 2017 service, when his ex-wife Samantha Olit posted an angry Facebook rant accusing widow Talinda Bentley of turning the funeral into a “delusional display,” erasing Bennington’s early life from the program, leaving out his prior children, and blocking their son Draven from speaking. Similar tension has followed other recent losses, echoing the kind of dynamic covered in stories of celebrity relationships that curdled into public feuds — including the spectacle around Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt and the reported exclusion of Burt Reynolds’ brother following the actor’s September 2018 death.

Grief on camera has a way of exposing exactly what’s not being said in private, and these services are proof — a performer’s nerves showing through her spray tan, a pastor using a pulpit to settle scores, and exes airing family business on Facebook because nobody handed them a program with their kids’ names on it. Ellis apologized for the Grande moment days later; Vaughn Franklin’s rebuke of Rev. Williams never got a public response from the pastor at all.