Dolly Parton’s sister breaks silence on family feud rumours after nephew’s firing and restraining order
Freida Parton has firmly shut down murmurs of a family feud after her late sister Dolly Parton’s estate filed a restraining order against her nephew, Bryan Seaver.
As well as being a relative of the country icon, Seaver also led her security for decades and was the one who was handpicked to announce her death.
However, just weeks after her passing on 25 August, TMZ obtained a termination notice that revealed he and his security companies were dismissed from overseeing Parton’s properties.
According to court documents seen by the Associated Press, it was said that Seaver’s ‘terrorising conduct made their continued retention untenable’.
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Following this, on Wednesday (23 September) the late star's estate was granted a temporary restraining order against Seaver.
In the request by She’s Alive, the company run by Parton's long-time Danny Nozell, which manages the singer's business interests, it claims Seaver sent threatening messages over several weeks.
According to Billboard, the lawsuit, which was filed in a Tennessee court, read: “These were not ordinary workplace disputes or heated words; they were deliberate threats from a self-proclaimed heavily armed, former security operative with a military-contractor background.
“Many of [Parton’s staff members] are now afraid to come to work or have resigned entirely because they do not feel safe.”
The document also alleged that Seaver - who is the son of Parton's sister Cassie - threatened attorneys, business partners, and employees and warned he could ‘destroy the entire brand’ unless he was paid.
In one message, said to have been from 1 September and included in the court documents, he allegedly wrote: “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 [expletive] pay me.”
Amid the supposed drama, Parton’s younger sister Freida has spoken out and said they ‘all love Bryan’.
On Thursday (24 September), she penned a short statement on social media, which read: “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. We all love Bryan, just as we all love each other. I love you all!”
Seaver, meanwhile, told ABC News: “The restraining order is spurious and simply a publicity stunt.”
He added: “I was fired. After the estate negotiated with me and my company for services in perpetuity and agreed to that service provision from my company. A week later they fired me for these contrived ‘threats’.”
The court documents also alleged that Seaver apparently said: “I'm not an entertainment person. I'm a killer,” which he denies.
He told ABC that his late aunt jokingly called him ‘her killer,’ claiming: “Dolly called me her killer. It was a joke we used around her camp.
“I was her 'baby boy ninja' and Danny Nozell took that text out of context to somehow imagine that I was threatening him. He’s always called me The Killer.”
The restraining order is reportedly meant to stop Seaver from talking with or being within 1,000 feet of She’s Alive employees, attorneys and business partners.
It is also meant to keep him from interfering with its business relationships.
Topics: Entertainment, News, World News, Celebrity
Madison Burgess