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Dolly Parton's sister, Stella Parton, has opened up about the country music star's struggles with her private cancer diagnosis.
Why Dolly Parton did not reveal her cancer diagnosis?
In an interview with Gayle King, Stella shared that Dolly kept her cancer diagnosis a secret before she passed away because she did not want people to worry.
"She did not want people sad," Stella Parton told "CBS Mornings" co-host. "She'd be really happy and delighted that people have shown her so much love."
Dolly Parton died in Nashville on August 25 at the age of 80 after a brief battle with cancer.
Stella Parton also revealed that not even their whole extended family knew about Dolly's cancer, saying that only "some of us knew, the ones of us that were closer".
"Dolly could not bear negative things," Stella Parton told King in the interview in Nashville. "And she would not have wanted her fans worried about it."
Dolly Parton's groundbreaking career spanned six decades in the music industry and launched her into TV and movie stardom.
The 9 to 5 hitmaker's death was announced by her nephew, Bryan Seaver, on social media on Tuesday, August 25. In a clip posted to Instagram, Seaver said that video announcement was "something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality".
In a statement regarding her death, her team shared that she died at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center "after bravely facing a brief battle with cancer."
Details about her cancer, including its type, were not revealed by the family.
