Super-Skinny Dolly Parton 'Risking Death' By Drive to Carve ANOTHER 10LBs Off Her Frail Frame
Parton said she is starting the new year with a diet.
Jan. 22 2025, Published 5:40 p.m. ET
Country music legend Dolly Parton has said she is embarking on a diet, RadarOnline.com has learned, after overstuffing herself during the holidays.
However, friends of the frail 79-year-old fear the already thin-as-a-rail singer is risking her health.
The singer has told friends she wants to lose 10 pounds from her frail frame.
Parton previously confessed to overindulging at the tail end of 2024, like so many of us.
She told an interviewer: "We all start eating around Thanksgiving, and we eat until the first of January. That's when we all go on our diets. So you think, 'Well, I'm not even going to think about dieting now. I'm just going to eat everything I want."
The Jolene singer, who is barely five feet tall, is said to weigh a scant 110 pounds. But she wants to weigh even less.
A source close to the singer told RadarOnline.com: "She's determined to drop 10 pounds, which is a huge amount for someone her size, and hit her goal of 100 pounds.
Folks in her inner circle are begging her to "stop this nonsense" and instead "focus on giving her body the nourishment it needs."
Friends are begging her to slow her busy schedule down and eat healthy.
Parton needs that nourishment now more than ever as she refuses to slow down her hectic schedule.
Along with her legendary career, the bubbly Jolene songbird owns multiple companies, including the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., a fragrance line, and a music publishing firm.
The big-hearted Grammy winner also runs her Dollywood Foundation, which focuses on the education of kids in her home county, and she always seems to be raising money for various causes, including a medical center, hurricane relief, LGBTQ+ support, and more.
"Dolly can never say no to people, and she has so much. She still wants to do with her time here on Earth," the insider said.
"She swears she doesn't feel tired, but she really does look exhausted a lot of the time."
Parton says she still plans to tour and make music.
The 11-time Grammy winner is busier than ever these days, especially while on the promotional trail for her latest album, Dolly Parton & Family: Smoky Mountain DNA – Family, Faith & Fables – with an upcoming tour already in the works for later this year.
The insider said: "People can't remember the last time she took a vacation, and the feeling is she needs to give herself a break" but "she can't quit performing and feels she owes it to her fans."
Parton is currently hard at work bringing a musical about her life to Broadway in 2026. Not only is she writing the music and lyrics, but she's also overseeing casting, currently searching for an unknown actress to play her.
The insider said: "Dolly is on the phone and taking meetings around the clock.
"She's got Dollywood to run and all her other business ventures, from her publishing company to fragrance line – and she's still thinking up new endeavors that take a lot of her time and energy."
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However, Parton has made it clear she doesn't view herself as a ticking time bomb – telling The Guardian she has zero plans of winding down.
The singer said: "Oh, my Lord, I can't retire."
Friends are begging her to change her mind – or at the very least eat a sandwich or something.
"The least she can do for herself is get enough calories," the insider said. "But she won't listen. She's skipping meals and trying to eat less than 1,000 calories a day.
"She's got it in her head that she'll look better if she's thinner, and no one can seem to talk sense into her."
