Dolly Parton's Sister Addresses Family Feud Rumors Following Nephew's Firing, Restraining Order

Dolly Parton’s sister, Freida Parton, is speaking out amid rumors that the family is divided over the late singer’s estate.

The 10th child of the Parton-Owens family addressed the speculation in an Instagram post, making it clear that there is no bad blood among her relatives.

“I’ll say this and this only: there is no feud within our family. No one among the Parton/Owens family is fighting over Dolly’s estate,” she wrote.

Freida added, “We love Bryan, just as we all love each other. I love you all,” referring to Dolly’s nephew, Bryan Seaver, who announced her death to the public.

The “9 to 5” singer had long relied on Bryan, her sister Cassie Parton's son, as her head of security. She also personally chose him to share a widely viewed video announcing her death.

But weeks after her passing, tensions surrounding Bryan became the subject of a legal dispute.

On September 22, Danny Nozell, Dolly’s longtime manager, fired Bryan and filed a restraining order against him in a Tennessee court on behalf of She's Alive LLC, the company now overseeing Dolly’s business empire.

The filing claimed that Bryan’s “terrorizing conduct made their continued retention untenable.”

According to Variety, the legal documents allege that Bryan used colorful and sometimes disturbing language in messages sent before and after Dolly’s death.

The paperwork stated that he described himself as a mercenary and “killer” while allegedly threatening to interfere with Dolly’s businesses, including Dollywood, if he was not properly paid.

The attorneys for She’s Alive described the alleged exchanges in the filing, saying: “Mr. Seaver began his campaign of threats, intimidation, and coercion a few weeks prior to Ms. Parton’s passing. Those threats continued after her passing, and he aimed them directly at SAL’s personnel, counsel, and business partners. In writing, he vowed to ‘destroy the entire brand,’ threatened to ‘ratfuck every [business party] entity’ that helps operate Dollywood and called himself ‘literally an international arms dealer and mercenary.’ He threatened that ‘[e]veryone needs to be worried about what I might do,' and told Ms. Parton’s entertainment attorney: ‘I’m not an entertainment person. I’m a killer.’ He also threatened to launch a podcast ‘dedicated to ruining Dolly’s brand partnerships’ unless he was paid.”

Bryan allegedly made another statement to Danny regarding the dispute.

“I’m going to set up a podcast dedicated to ruining Dolly’s brand partnerships and telling the violations these people have done on us. It’s going to be great. Or f------ pay me,” he allegedly wrote. “Her money better be bigger than I can make elsewhere or I’m going to f--- everyone."

Bryan later addressed the allegations in a statement to TMZ.

“I am a career soldier and military contractor and do conduct arms deals for foreign governments. I am a security professional and I am a killer. However, nothing in this lawsuit were threats and most of the comments I stand by… I was talking frankly in a private way with Danny who I thought was my friend and he fancies himself a gangster. A lot of these messages are two guys having rage talk and crying on the phone together while we were grieving,” he said.