Aretha Franklin: I've lost 85 pounds
(CBS/AP) Aretha Franklin says she's lost 85 pounds as part of an ongoing effort to drop weight.
"I've been looking at a lot of pictures, and I was saying [to myself], 'You were entirely too fat for words,'" the legendary singer said with a laugh in a taped interview that aired Wednesday on "The Wendy Williams Show."
"I was doing everything you could to lose that weight, and it's hard," she added. "It's just really hard. [But] you can't continue eating things that will hurt you eventually."
Williams interviewed the 18-time Grammy winner on Friday at a Detroit-area hotel.
The 68-year-old Franklin underwent surgery for an undisclosed ailment in December and didn't go into detail about it during the interview with Williams.
The "Queen of Soul" did say a recurring pain in her side last year was her "first inkling that something was not what it should be."
The second part of the interview is to air on Thursday.