Dolly Parton’s younger sister, Stella, got candid about losing the legendary country singer to cancer, and revealed whether the star had died of a broken heart after the passing of her husband, Carl Dean.
Stella, who is one of Dolly’s 11 siblings, shared in an interview with CBS Mornings that Dolly was “very sad” after Carl passed away in March 2025, following her 58-year marriage to the recluse.
Dolly’s broken heart
When asked if his passing was the catalyst for her health problems, Stella replied: “I don’t think that’s why she got sick. I think she worked too hard and didn’t maybe take as good of care of herself as she should have.” She added that Dolly had neglected her health while caring for her husband “to a point”.
“I know their relationship was very unique and very deep and loyal,” Stella explained. “And I think it broke her heart to see him in the shape that he got to before he passed away.”
© Instagram“But I don’t think that’s what made her sick. I think my sister worked so hard for so long and just kept going. Even to the last conversation I had with her, she was working. That was her passion.”
The 77-year-old shared rare insight into Dolly and Carl’s private romance, which began back in 1964 when she moved to Nashville at 18 years old and bumped into him outside a laundromat.
See Dolly’s nephew announce her passing below…
“He adored her. He was fascinated with her. He thought she was funny, like Tinkerbell – and he was quiet and shy,” Stella recalled. She then recounted a story about Carl accompanying Dolly to an awards show for the first and last time in 1967, before declaring that he was “never doing this again”.
Despite this reaction, he encouraged her to chase her dreams to the very last. “He loved her enough to let her be what she was. That’s how I see it,” Stella said.
Protecting her family
The blonde beauty also revealed that Dolly did not tell all of her family members about her ailing health, but rather kept her cancer battle close to her chest.
“Dolly did not want anybody to tell that because Dolly could not bear negative things, and she would not have wanted her fans worried about it,” Stella explained.
© Getty Images“She didn’t want a lot of the family worried about it. Some of us knew, the ones that were closer, but not every relative.”
“Bottom line, end of the day, her family and Carl’s family…are the people that she would want to say, ‘See, everything I did, they cared. They really loved me,'” Stella said of the outpouring of love from the world in the wake of her death.
© InstagramDolly, Stella and their siblings were raised in Tennessee by their loving parents, Robert and Avie Lee Parton, and their household was constantly filled with music.
Stella launched her music career in 1975 with her album I Want to Hold You in My Dreams Tonight, and also wrote a memoir in 2011, published three cookbooks, and starred in her sister’s 2015 film Coat of Many Colors.
Read the full article here
