Dolly Parton's niece, singer Jada Star, has revealed that the country music icon deliberately kept her cancer diagnosis private because she "never wanted to worry anybody." Parton died last week at the age of 80 after what her spokesperson described as a brief battle with an undisclosed form of cancer, a loss that came as a shock to fans worldwide given she had largely stayed out of the public eye over the past year due to unspecified health issues.

Star, 47, the daughter of Parton's sister Freida, said the family had kept the illness deliberately private, noting Parton had recently been treated at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville. She also recalled performing her aunt's song "The Orchard" at a tribute at the Grand Ole Opry on 29 August, and described the comfort the family has taken from the global outpouring of tributes. Parton was buried in a private family funeral in Nashville on 28 August.