Dolly Parton's sister has revealed why the late singer kept her cancer diagnosis as a secret.
Giving her first interview since Dolly's death, Stella Parton said that the truth regarding her sister's health was only known to a few, select people, saying: “Some of us knew, the ones of us that were closer".
Speaking to Gayle King, Stella revealed that her sister had deliberately withheld details of her health from her fans.
“She did not want people sad,” she explained. “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".
“Bottom line, end of the day, her family and Carl’s family and probably Judy’s family are the people that she would want to say, ‘See, everything I did, they cared. They really loved me", she added.
This comes after Dolly Parton passed away aged 80 on August 25, with her cause of death later revealed as a "brief battle with cancer".
Her death had been confirmed by her nephew, Bryan Seaver via a video message shared on Instagram.
“This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality. As her head of security for more than two decades, a role my father Larry held before me, I have imagined the heaviness of this moment, but haven’t truly felt it until now. It is an honor, an honor mixed with absolute pride and great sadness", he said.
Dolly Parton's funeral took place at Nashville's Woodlawn Memorial Park, where country music stars, Porter Wagoner, George Jones and Tammy Wynette were also buried. The singer's husband, Carl Dean, whom she was married to for almost 60 years, was buried there last year.
Last week, it was announced that Dolly Parton would get a new star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, after the original one, which was first dedicated to the singer in 1984, was vandalised. More on this story here.
