Dolly Parton health update and how she was ‘crushed’ by her baby brother’s death

Dolly Parton was only nine when her baby brother died but the traumatic event still impacts her today. When she recently appeared on Bunny Xo’s Dumb Blonde podcast, she said: "He didn't live that long, actually. He died at birth.” She also revealed that “But I followed Mama around the whole time she was pregnant. She said that one was gonna be mine. I'd sing to it, kiss it on the belly, but he didn't make it."

Dolly Parton recalled that her baby brother’s death “just crushed me.” She also said: "I didn't understand about death and all of that. So that was a real hit for me at that age, that I had lost my baby," she continues. "I had a guilt thing about it, somehow."

Dolly Parton, the Queen of Country Music, is 78 years old, and has had her own health struggles over the years. She is known for her hits such as ‘9 to 5,’ ‘Jolene’ and ‘I Will Always Love You,’ and is of course godmother to Miley Cyrus.

In her biography Dolly on Dolly: Interviews and Encounters with Dolly Parton, which came out in 2017, she said: “I was getting away with murder. I wasn't watching what I ate, I wasn't conscious of nutrition, and wasn't taking care of myself.

"I was working hard, and underneath I was a pile of personal and emotional problems. All at once I fell apart. It was stomach problems and female problems - all over health problems actually."

In 1984, Dolly was experiencing intense stomach issues but took to the stage despite advice from doctors not to. She then ended up collapsing on stage and was eventually diagnosed with endometriosis after suffering serious internal bleeding that led her to undergo two operations.

Dolly Parton does not have children and had to undergo a partial hysterectomy when she was 36. In her book, she wrote: "It was an awful time for me, Every day I thought, 'I wish I had the nerve to kill myself'. Suddenly, I was a middle-aged woman. I went through a dark time, until I made myself snap out of it."

Dolly Parton has been married to husband Carl Dean since 1966 and when she appeared recently at the CMA Fest in Nashville, she told Entertainment Tonight there that “I've always said that if my husband was in ill health or needed me, I would most definitely pull way back."

According to Hello! “ It was reported in 2022 that Dolly was taking a step back from her work to care for her husband after he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2019. However neither party has spoken on the matter and there's been no such confirmation of the diagnosis.”