Dolly Parton addresses ill health rumours and reassures fans: 'I ain’t dead yet!'

Dolly Parton’s sister Freida raised fears this week when she posted a message on social media, asking the singer’s fans to keep Dolly in their prayers.  

She wrote: “Last night, I was up all night praying for my sister, Dolly. 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.” 

Dolly Parton, 79, recently postponed her Las Vegas residency, telling fans that she was facing several “health challenges.” The ‘9 to 5’ and ‘Jolene’ singer was due to perform six shows at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in December but postponed the gigs until December 2026. 

In an updated post yesterday, Freida clarified her original statement, saying she “didn’t mean to scare anyone or make it sound so serious when asking for prayers for Dolly.” 

Doubling down, Dolly has posted a video to reassure her fans. 

“I know lately everybody thinks that I am sicker than I am,” she said in a video from the set of a Grand Ole Opry commercial. “Do I look sick to you? I’m working hard here.” 

She continues: “Anyway, I wanted to put everybody’s mind at ease, those of you that seem to be real concerned, which I appreciate, and I appreciate your prayers because I’m a person of faith.” 

“As I mentioned 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, so I let a lot of things go that I should have been taken care of,” she added. “So anyway, when I got round 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, closer to Vanderbilt, you know, where I’m kind of having a few treatments here and there.” 

Check out the video message below.

It has been a tough year for Dolly Parton. In March, her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Thomas Dean, died aged 82.

Following his death, the country music legend said that she had put writing new songs “on hold” to cope with the loss. She did, however, release the moving single ‘If You Hadn’t Been There’ - a tribute song to her late husband.   

In brighter news, as part of its 70th anniversary celebrations, Guinness World Records honoured Dolly as one of their icons in August. 

The company gave her an Icon certificate, presented to her at her studios in Nashville, Tennessee, celebrating the fact that she holds 11 record-breaking titles.  

These include most consecutive decades with top 10 album entries on the Billboard country chart, most studio albums released by a female country singer, and most Grammy nominations for a female country artist.  

Parton was also the first country singer to be nominated for the EGOT – an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony – aka the “Grand Slam of showbusiness”.

Craig Glenday, editor in chief at Guinness World Records, said: “Dolly is undoubtedly one of the most celebrated writers and performers in the history of country music, as reflected in her many Guinness World Records certificates, but her reach and influence extends far beyond the musical world.”   

Indeed, Parton’s charitable and philanthropic work includes the Dollywood Foundation, founded in 1988. The institution champions the education of children in her home state of Tennessee. As for her literacy initiative, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, it has distributed more than 285 million books globally since 1995.