A US judge has told a former partner of the late soul singer James Brown to have a DNA test carried out on the child she claims to be his son, the BBC has reported.

The DNA test is just the latest twist in the current legal battle over Brown’s estate.

The legendary singer died of pneumonia on Christmas Day 2006 at the age of 73 and left the majority of his estate to trusts set up to educate disadvantaged children and to his grandchildren.

However, Brown’s six adult children and his former partner Tomi Rae Hynie are contesting the singer’s will.

The will mentions Brown’s children but crucially makes no mention of Ms Hynie nor her six-year-old son James Brown II.

Ms Hynie’s lawyer Robert Rosen claimed she had no problem in taking a paternity test.

“She’s said that she was in favor and would do the test, provided that the other children also took the test,” the BBC quotes Mr Rosen as saying.

Brown’s adult children have alleged that the singer’s former advisers convinced him to create the trusts so that they could profit from the managing them.

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WENN

Late soul legend James Brown was poisoned by thieves intent on digging up the fortune he’d buried on his South Carolina estate, according to a stunning new expose.

Former business associates and backing singers insist the Godfather Of Soul’s remains should be exhumed for toxicology tests after hearing rumours he was poisoned before his death on Christmas Day 2006.

Their claims have been backed up by Brown’s widow Tomi Rae Hynie, but she refuses to go on record about the crime fearing the thieves will turn on her.

In a Globe article about the alleged crime, Hynie says, “I can’t comment on that right now for the safety of myself and my son.”

But Brown’s former associate Jacque Hollander isn’t afraid to speak out.

She tells the publication, “Toxicology tests on his body, especially on his hair, would easily show if poison was administered to him before he died. An autopsy was never done at the time, but his body should be exhumed and one carried out now.”

Hollander insists she never accepted the energetic 73-year-old had just died, claiming the fact that Brown complained of severe stomach pains in the days leading up to his death should be investigated.

A new film about Brown’s life, directed by Harrison Starks, will delve into the myth that the soul star was poisoned.

He says, “The real question is who killed James Brown.”

His death isn’t the only controversy swirling around Brown – his family are still fighting trustees of his estate over the soul man’s fortune, and Hynie is attempting to prove her young son, James Brown II, is the singer’s legitimate heir.

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WENN

“Godfather of Soul” James Brown died in Atlanta, Ga., early Christmas morning after being admitted to Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday with what his agent described as severe pneumonia. He was 73.

Brown died around 1:45 a.m. with his close friend, Charles Bobbit, at his bedside, according to his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music, reports the Associated Press.

Brown’s death comes just as Eddie Murphy plays a feverishly dancing, smooth-talking James Brown-type in the new movie Dreamgirls.

In real life the dynamic showbiz veteran, who was known as the hardest-working man in show business, inspired generations of artists, from David Bowie to Michael Jackson, in his 50 years in the music industry.

Born May 3, 1933 in South Carolina during the Great Depression, Brown fine tuned his music in jail as a juvenile offender. He eventually turned professional in 1953.

Brown produced more than 119 chart-topping singles, including such hits as “Please, Please, Please,” “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” “I Got You (I Feel Good),” “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine)” and “It’s a Man’s World,” and has sold over 500 million records over the years. He has received a Kennedy Center Honor, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a 1992 special Grammy for lifetime achievement, among his many achievements.

Taking a line from one of his signature refrains, the musician – whose rhythm-driven style connected gospel, soul, funk and hip-hop – told PEOPLE in 1994 that at 60 he still felt good. He also thanked God for making him “artist of the century.”

While he thrived professionally, Brown’s personal life was often tumultuous. He married for the first time in 1953, to Velma Warren, with whom he had two children. They divorced in 1969. In 1971 he married Deidre Jenkins. They had three children and divorced in 1981. Brown’s third wife (from 1984 until her death in 1996), Adrienne Rodriegues, had him arrested four times on charges of assault.

After brandishing a shotgun at a business symposium in his Augusta, Ga., offices and leading police on a 10-mile chase in 1988, Brown spent two years in a South Carolina prison.

Still, he claimed, his prison time wasn’t wasted. “It gave me time to get into the Bible,” Brown told PEOPLE a few years after his 1991 release. “Success doesn’t mean everything.”

Brown is survived by his fourth wife Tomi Rae, whom he wed in 2002 (and remarried in 2004 after a brief annulment). They have one child, a son James Jr.

“He was dramatic to the end – dying on Christmas Day,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a friend of Brown’s since 1955, told the AP. “Almost a dramatic, poetic moment. He’ll be all over the news all over the world today. He would have it no other way.”

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