Dolly Parton is opening up about the “hard times with my health” she’s been forced to face in a new update.
“I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl [Thomas Dean],” Parton, 80, told People in an interview published Friday, August 21, referring to her late husband who died at 82 in March 2025.
Parton announced in May that she needed to postpone her Las Vegas residency over undisclosed health concerns. At the time, the country icon revealed that she was “responding really well to meds and treatment.”
While discussing her health issues with People, Parton acknowledged that she’s previously overcome other conditions related to her health.
“It’s not like I haven’t been through hard times with my health,” she said. “But I think because we live in a 24/7 world with social media, everything gets magnified in ways it wasn’t years ago. I used to joke that I was the Queen of the Tabloids, but now I guess I can say I’m the Queen of Social Media AI! Seriously, though, even though I’m still healin’, I’m still workin’.”
Earlier this month, Parton missed a scheduled appearance at the opening of a new roller coaster at her Dollywood theme park.
“I’m supposed to be there in person, like we planned,” she said in a video message shared with attendees. “Now I’ve told you before, all my fans, that I have had a few little health issues. And sometimes I get a little dizzy, and I get dehydrated.”
Parton continued at the time, “I’m dehydrated, so my Nashville doctor clipped my wings, saying you ain’t traveling this week. I guess if your doctor tells you you ain’t traveling this week, you ain’t traveling this week.”
Despite her health woes, Parton has continually insisted that she was improving slowly but surely.
“It’s gonna take me a little while before I’m up to stage performance level because some of the meds and treatments make me a little bit swimmy-headed, as my grandma used to say,” she said in her May health update. “And of course, I can’t be dizzy carrying around banjos, guitars and such on five-inch heels.”
Comparing herself to a “classic car” merely in need of restoration, Parton promised to return to the stage “better than ever.”
“When they raised the hood on this old antique, they realized that I need to rebuild my engine and that my transmission is slipping, my oil pan is leaking, my muffler is busted and my shocks and pistons need to be replaced, and for sure, my spark plugs need to be changed,” Parton quipped. “My immune system and my digestive system got all out of whack over the past couple three years, and they’re working real hard on rebuilding and strengthening those and hopefully I’ll be up to snuff again soon.”
