Dolly Parton’s heartbroken sister, Stella, has said the country music legend chose to keep her cancer diagnosis hidden from many members of her own family.
Parton died at the age of 80 on August 25, following months of unexplained health concerns that had forced her to cancel several public appearances and left fans increasingly anxious about her condition.
After her death, it was confirmed that the beloved Queen of Country had been privately undergoing treatment for cancer, although the exact type of the disease was not made public.
Now Stella, 77, has shed light on her sister’s decision to opt for discretion on the subject of her medical issues, speaking to Gayle King on CBS Mornings.
Stella said Dolly “did not want anybody to tell” the public, explaining that her sister struggled with negativity and would never have wanted her devoted fans to worry about her health battle.
According to Stella, Parton also hoped to spare much of the family from distress. While “some of us knew,” particularly those closest to her, she said, the diagnosis was not shared with every relative.
Dolly Parton’s devastated sister Stella (left) has revealed that the kept her cancer diagnosis secret even from many of her relations
Parton died aged 80 on August 25 after months of mysterious health woes that saw her pull out of a string of public appearances, fueling fan fears for her wellbeing
Stella insisted that Parton ‘did not want people sad and she did not want people worried. She’d be really happy and delighted that people have shown her so much love because she knew that that would make us feel better as her family.’
The ‘bottom line’ was that Parton’s family – as well as those of her late husband Carl Dean and ‘probably’ her best friend and assistant Judy Ogle – ‘are the people that she would want to say: “Well, see? Everything I did, they cared. They really loved me!”‘
Parton died four days after being admitted to Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center, according to a report in TMZ.
Her loved ones began racing to Nashville upon hearing news of her hospitalization, but not all were able to reach her while she was alive.
The Jolene singer’s death was confirmed the day it occurred in an Instagram video posted by her nephew Bryan Seaver, who also acted as her head of security.
‘This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago before I fully absorbed it as a future reality,’ Seaver said.
He hailed his aunt for having ‘lived in the light’ and said she was now ‘in the arms of Jesus’ and the company of her late husband Carl Dean, as well as her parents and ‘countless others who have watched her and longed to meet her in the heavens.’
Three days after she died, an intimate group of loved ones including Seaver was seen gathering at her burial site, the Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Nashville.
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Seaver had previously disclosed Parton would be interred in high heels in the same mausoleum that houses the remains of her husband of over half a century.
While it was initially unclear whether Parton was buried at that event, her niece later confirmed that the singer had been ‘laid to rest’ at some point that day.
In his Instagram video announcing her death, Seaver had relayed Parton’s wish ‘to rest in a beautiful bed of plush cotton because after a life of wearing heavy rhinestones, she finally deserves to be comfortable and have some rest.’
Dean died aged 82 of causes that have remained private in March 2025, two months before what would have been his and Parton’s 59th wedding anniversary.
Parton enjoyed an illustrious music career spanning six decades and was arguably best known for her hits Jolene and 9 to 5.
The fourth of 12 children, six of whom are now still living, Parton was born in Pittman Center, Tennessee, on January 19, 1946 and raised in the Great Smoky Mountains.
In an interview published just four days before her death, Parton had declared she still had ‘so many things I want to achieve’ and vowed to continue ‘working as long as I can to see everything come to life,’ via People.
She explained that she had been grappling with ‘some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl.’
At the end of September 2025, Parton raised fan concerns by announcing that unspecified ‘health challenges’ had forced her to postpone her Las Vegas residency from that December until the September 2026.
She shared the news directly with fans on Instagram, explaining that her medical issues had required her to undergo several procedures.
Then in early October of last year, Parton’s younger sister Freida struck fear into the hearts of fans by pleading with them to pray for the country icon.
‘Last night, I was up all night praying for my sister, Dolly,’ Frieda wrote on Facebook on October 7, 2025. ‘Many of you know she hasn’t been feeling her best lately. I truly believe in the power of prayer, and I have been led to ask all of the world that loves her to be prayer warriors and pray with me.’
As panic mounted, Freida backpedaled, trying to assure the public her sister had ‘been a little under the weather’ but that she never intended to ‘make it sound so serious’ and merely issued her request out of a belief in ‘the power of prayer.’
Parton herself then posted a video of herself in hair, makeup and costume at an ad shoot for the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville in order to comfort her fans.
‘Do I look sick to you?’ she chirpily asked, adding that ‘I appreciate your prayers, because I’m a person of faith, I can always use the prayers for anything and everything, but I want you to know that I’m okay!’