Dolly Parton’s Sister Says Her Family Wasn’t Mad About Viral Post Praying For Her Sister’s Health

Freida had the whole world on notice…

Last fall, Dolly Parton announced that she would be postponing her upcoming Las Vegas residency due to unspecified “health challenges.”

Her six shows scheduled to take place at The Colosseum in Caesar’s Palace in December of 2025 have been moved to September of this year, but it was Dolly’s younger sister, Frieda, who had everyone freaking out that something might be seriously wrong with Dolly, after posting on Facebook asking fans to pray for her recovery:

“Last night, I was up all night praying for my sister, Dolly. Many of you know she hasn’t been feeling her best lately. I truly believe in the power of prayer, and I have been lead to ask all of the world that loves her to be prayer warriors and pray with me.

She’s strong, she’s loved, and with all the prayers being lifted for her, I know in my heart she’s going to be just fine. Godspeed, my sissy Dolly. We all love you!”

As you can imagine, fans were seriously concerned after reading that, and it became an international news story making headlines all over the world…

So much so, that Freida had to post another statement clarifying that she didn’t want to “scare anyone or make it sound so serious,” but she believes in the power of prayer, and since Dolly has been feeling under the weather, she wants to help her in any way she can.

She explained it was “nothing more” than a little sister looking out for her big sister, but we all certainly got a good scare out of it.

And during an interview with News Channel 11 this weekend, she elaborated on the whole fiasco further, saying she simply asked for prayers because her Mama raised her to do so, and she wasn’t trying to make the situation sound worse than it was or blow anything out of proportion:

“I just said what I said because Mama told us to pray. And, so I prayed, and I wanted people to pray for her because she wasn’t feeling good. It’s like, hey, I didn’t mean it to happen. I just asked, you know, for people to pray for. Because that’s the way I was raised, you know, pray.”

Dolly came out with a video shortly after the story blew up to reassure fans that she was fine, and Freida says her older sister wasn’t made at her for it… she thinks Dolly knew she just didn’t fully understand how the internet works:

“She probably thought, ‘Well, she didn’t know about the internet then. She had no idea.’ So I didn’t get in trouble with her or none of the family. But some people were very upset with me because I had said that.”

I mean, it really was a kind gesture, and the internet is gonna internet, that’s for sure…

Freida also talked about

“The things that we lived through and the things that meant everything to me, and if there’s not a song that doesn’t have a memory or doesn’t have a reason to write, I’m not writing it.

But I like to take the fans back and hope it helps them in their life of raising their children and all that. Dolly’s always been a guardian angel to me. And Mama got sick when we were 13 in Floyd, and we had to go live with Dolly and Carl.

And in Brentwood, they hadn’t even built the big house yet. They used to let us go out there and pick up wood and stuff, for extra money.”

Dolly continues to outwork pretty much everyone through her many business ventures, and she’s also headed back to the stage in 2026, so it’s great that she took some time to rest at the end of last year following the loss of her beloved husband, Carl Dean, because she’s going to be as busy as ever this year:

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Here’s a little more from Freida.. she’s a character and I’m here for it:

The post Dolly Parton’s Sister Says Her Family Wasn’t Mad About Viral Post Praying For Her Sister’s Health first appeared on Whiskey Riff.