Dolly Parton’s manager moved to calm concerns about the singer’s health after a prayer request from her sister prompted a burst of speculation, saying the 79-year-old is dealing with kidney stones and a routine procedure rather than a serious illness. “It’s just the kidney stones, and the procedure she needs to resolve those,” Olly Rowland said in a message to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It looks like her sister posted, and it got quite a bit blown out of proportion, weirdly.” The clarification followed a late-night Facebook post from Parton’s sister, Freida, that said she had been “up all night praying” and asked fans to join her, language that ricocheted across entertainment and local news feeds before family and representatives stepped in to add detail.
Freida Parton later said she did not intend to alarm anyone. “I didn’t mean to scare anyone or make it sound so serious when asking for prayers for Dolly,” she wrote in a follow-up message, explaining that the country star had been “a little under the weather.” “It was nothing more than a little sister asking for prayers for her big sister,” she added, thanking fans for their support. The post, which arrived a week after Dolly postponed a Las Vegas residency to allow time for medical care, was echoed by local outlets that quoted the same clarifying language as relatives and staff sought to steady the narrative.
Parton herself addressed the rumors directly in a video posted on her social accounts, recorded on the set of a Grand Ole Opry commercial shoot. Smiling and speaking to camera, she told viewers, “Do I look sick to you? I’m working hard here,” and added that she wanted to “put everybody’s mind at ease.” “I appreciate your prayers, ’cause I’m a person of faith,” she said, before delivering her plainest line: “I wanted you to know I’m not dying.” She closed with a characteristic flourish about her work ethic and faith: “I don’t think God is through with me, and I ain’t done working.” The message landed within hours of her sister’s appeal, signaling an effort to cap speculation with on-camera reassurance.
The singer tied her current treatments to a year of personal strain that followed the death of her husband, Carl Dean, in March. She said she had “let a lot of things go” while caring for him and afterward, and that doctors in Nashville had advised her to take care of “nothing major” but enough to require staying close to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for “a few treatments here and there.” The context was significant: Parton’s rare cancellations and a sister’s prayer request had amplified a sense of urgency that her own account sought to recalibrate as routine care and recovery after a period of neglecting her health.