Dolly Parton’s niece, Jada Star, is shedding some light on the Queen of Country’s final days before her death at age 80.
A week after Parton died following her battle with cancer, 47-year-old Star told Extra that the singer’s family had kept her diagnosis hidden from the public out of care for her fans.
“You know, we kind of kept all that stuff real private,” Star told the outlet. “She never wanted to worry anybody.”
“So Tuesday was just a shock,” she added of Parton’s August 25 death.
After Parton’s death was announced by her nephew, Bryan Seaver, her publicist confirmed in a statement that she had a “brief battle with cancer,” although further details about her illness were not disclosed.
open image in gallery“After bravely facing a brief battle with cancer, Dolly departed her earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Centre surrounded by loved ones,” her publicist Marcel Pariseau said.
Parton had shared a rare update on her health in her final interview before her death. In the story published August 21, she told People magazine that she had faced “hard times with my health” following the death of her husband Carl Dean, who died in March 2025 aged 82.
“I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl,” she told the outlet. “It’s not like I haven’t been through hard times with my health. But I think because we live in a 24/7 world with social media, everything gets magnified in ways it wasn’t years ago.”
The global icon died four days after the article was published.
open image in galleryIn a tribute to her older sister after her death, Stella Parton revealed that in her Dolly had offered to help test experimental drugs in her final days to help others with cancer.
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“She told me recently that if there was no hope for her, she would still allow her medical team to try experimental drugs in the hope of helping others in the future,” Stella wrote on Facebook.
“My sister was always thinking of others and if you want to honor her legacy, show more kindness, lift others up and give more of your time and resources as she continued to do to the very end.”
Star, who is the daughter of Parton’s younger sister Freida, told Extra that the family has had a “really difficult,” “surreal” and “bittersweet” time since Parton’s death.
“All of these tributes have helped so much to help us all through it,” she said.
A singer-songwriter herself, Star paid tribute to her aunt at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville after her death by performing “The Orchard,” which is a duet she originally recorded with the late country music legend.