© ddp USA/REX/Shutterstock/Rex Images Gladys Knight in Concert, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Jan. 27, 2017.
Gladys Knight recently won her bid to end all personal connections to her son’s struggling chicken and waffles restaurant, according to a settlement filed in Georgia’s Clayton County court.
The agreement, signed Monday, states that 40-year-old Shanga Hankerson must remove all uses of Knight’s name, likeness and memorabilia from the restaurant formerly called Gladys Knight’s Chicken and Waffles by April 26, 2017, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. However, he will have to complete the orders immediately if the restaurant fails another health inspection.
“She’s out of litigation and has her name and intellectual property back,” Knight’s attorney, Chris Bussert, told the newspaper. “What’s not to like about that?”
Hankerson founded the restaurant — now named The World Famous Chicken & Waffles but originally called Gladys Knight’s Chicken & Waffles — with his mother’s help in 1999. It used to have three Atlanta locations, including one downtown, but the Cascade and Stonecrest eateries closed after being seized by state tax agents last June.
The legal battle has strained Knight’s relationship with her son, especially after Hankerson said in court documents that his mother did not possess the “mental capacity” to choose to remove her name from the business. Knight claimed Hankerson was trying to harm her reputation.