NEW YORK (AP) — Aretha Franklin says Cissy Houston raised her daughter Whitney Houston well — and that an interview where Franklin said parents need to make sure children “leave home prepared” was taken out of context.

Franklin released a statement Wednesday, four days after Houston’s funeral. She was expected to sing at the funeral, but bowed out because of leg problems.

In an interview about Houston on NBC’s Today show last week, Franklin said parents need to talk to their children to make sure they “leave home prepared, really. She left home with all the right things.”

Franklin said her full statement — “This is no reflection on Cissy or Nippy’s upbringing,” using a nickname for Houston — wasn’t aired.

Houston had fought substance abuse for years. A cause of her Feb. 11 death has yet to be determined.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.