Fans have grown worried about Dolly Parton’s health following the death of her husband, and the 79-year-old icon recently revealed she’s been dealing with health challenges of her own.
Now Miley Cyrus — who shares a close bond with Parton as her godmother — has offered a reassuring update to Entertainment Tonight. When asked about Parton canceling some appearances, Cyrus kept things positive.
“She’s always going to keep the show going. The show must go on. So she’s just excited to get back to work,” Cyrus told ET.
Parton herself has stayed upbeat despite the issues. “I ain’t dead yet!” she joked on Instagram in October, alongside a video updating fans on her condition.
“I know lately, everyone thinks that I am sicker than I am. Do I look sick to you?” Parton said in the clip. “I wanted to put everyone’s mind at ease.” She added that she’s grateful fans “seem real concerned.”
“And I appreciate your prayers because I’m a person of faith. I can always use the prayers for anything and everything,” Parton continued. “I want you to know that I’m okay. I’ve got some problems as I mentioned. Back when my husband Carl was sick, that was for a long time.”
Parton explained that after Carl passed away, she stopped taking care of herself the way she should have. “So I let a lot of things go that I should have been taking care of. So anyway, when I got around to it, the doctors said we need to take care of this; we need to take care of that. So nothing major.”
She added, “But, I did have to cancel some things, so I can be closer to home, closer to Vanderbilt, where I’m kind of having a few treatments here and there. But I wanted you to know that I’m not dying.”
During her December interview with ET, Cyrus also touched on her new song for the upcoming Avatar sequel. She said she watched the unfinished film during production. “For me, what I love about James Cameron’s work is even though he can make something this large of scale, he never loses the heart.”
