Dolly Parton wants everyone to know she’s fine and “not dying.”
An odd thing to have to say, yes. But the country music icon, actress, activist and humanitarian posted a video to social media on Wednesday to clear up rumors that had been going around to the contrary.
“I wanted to say, I know lately everybody thinks that I’m sicker than I am,” Parton, 79, said in the video from a set where she was filming a commercial for the Grand Ole Opry. “Do I look sick to you? I’m workin’ hard here.”
Dressed in a red and black fringe top, the “9 to 5” star added that she “wanted to put everybody’s mind at ease” because many seemed “real concerned, which I appreciate.”
“And 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 ok,” she added in the video, which was captioned “I ain’t dead yet!”
Parton went on to acknowledge that she’s had “some problems” health-wise, which she had mentioned last month when she canceled a series of December concerts in Las Vegas. She then elaborated on the reasons behind those issues.
“Back when my husband Carl was very sick – that was for a long time – and then when he passed, I didn’t take care of myself,” she said. “So I let a lot of things go that I should have been taking care of. So, anyway, when I got around to it, the doctor said ‘We need to take care of this, we need to take care of that.’ Nothing major, but I did have to cancel some things so I could be closer to home.”
Parton’s husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean, died in March.
Heightened concerns about Parton’s health were spurred on Tuesday, when her sister Freida posted to Facebook that she’d been “up all night praying” for the “Jolene” singer.
“Many of you know she hasn’t been feeling her best lately. I truly believe in the power of prayer, and I have been lead to ask all of the world that loves her to be prayer warriors and pray with me,” Freida Parton’s post read. “She’s strong, she’s loved, and with all the prayers being lifted for her, I know in my heart she’s going to be just fine. Godspeed, my sissy Dolly. We all love you!”
Mass panic ensued, reasonably.
But someone apparently had words with Freida, because she went back on Facebook later to tell everyone that she didn’t intend for her words to spark worry. “I didn’t mean to scare anyone or make it sound so serious when asking for prayers for Dolly,” she wrote. “It was nothing more than a little sister asking for prayers for her big sister.”
Later, another Parton sister appeared. This one was named Stella. “My sister Freida is always concerned when one of her siblings isn’t feeling well so she ask for prayers on Dolly’s behalf,” she explained. She then went on to say she was mad about being asked for health updates on her sister.
Fans were on particularly high alert because this call for prayers came soon after the death of Parton’s husband. The death of a long-term spouse has been associated with illness and even death in the surviving partner.
Late last month, Parton announced that she was postponing her December concerts in Las Vegas due to some “health challenges.”
She added that she had been told by doctors she had to undergo “a few procedures,” without elaborating further.
“Given this, I am not going to be able to rehearse and put together the show that I want you to see, and the show that you deserve to see,” she wrote at the time.
Parton was set to perform six shows at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in December in her first Las Vegas residency in more than 30 years. Those concerts were rescheduled for September 2026.
Parton is one of the most beloved musicians – likely even one of the most beloved people – in the world.
She is a long-time best-selling songwriter and performer and actor. Her charitable works include helping underwrite Moderna’s vaccine for COVID-19. Her program that sends books to children has changed an untold number of lives; the Louisville chapter alone noted recently that it had just mailed its 500,000th book to a child.
In her video on Wednesday, Parton said she hoped that if her admirers “heard it from me, you’d know that I was ok.”
“I’m not ready to die yet. I don’t think God is through with me and I ain’t done workin’,” she added. “So I love you for caring and keep praying for me.”
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