Fox News forced to apologize for mixing up Aretha Franklin and Patti LaBelle. Oops.

Yikes.
Fox News forced to apologize for mixing up Aretha Franklin and Patti LaBelle. Oops.
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 19: Aretha Franklin performs onstage during the "Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives" Premiere Concert during the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival at Radio City Music Hall on April 19, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival) Credit: Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival

Aretha Franklin isn't with us anymore, but her long-standing feud with Patti LaBelle apparently still lives on, thanks to none other than Fox News.

During the network's in memoriam tribute to the Queen of Soul -- who died Thursday morning -- viewers noticed that one of the featured images of Franklin wasn't a picture of the late singer at all. Rather, it was an image of LaBelle, who is very much alive. Yikes.

The photo in question shows LaBelle dressed in a green jacket, performing in 2014 at the White House. It is most definitely not Franklin —and if years of shade between the divas has taught us anything, it's that Franklin would have hated this mix-up.

Viewers caught onto the mistake right away and called out the network for its flub.

In a statement issued to The Wrap, Fox News "sincerely" apologized to Franklin's loved ones for the error.

"Our intention was to honor the icon using a secondary image of her performing with Patti LaBelle in the full screen graphic, but the image of Ms. Franklin was obscured in that process, which we deeply regret," Jessica Santostefano from Fox News told the website. It's worth nothing that the image is from a performance that did not include Franklin, though she was in attendance at the White House event.

You can watch a full video of Fox's mistake here.

Topics Celebrities

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