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The late Dolly Parton’s younger sister Freida Parton has broken her silence on family “feud” rumors following the legendary singer’s death.
“Hi 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,” Freida, 69, clarified via Instagram on Wednesday, September 23.
Her statement comes on the heels of Dolly’s nephew Bryan Seaver being fired as head of security for her properties last week. The controversial decision to remove Seaver was reportedly made by the executors of Dolly’s estate.
“We all love Bryan, just as we love each other. I love you all,” Freida clarified in Wednesday’s Instagram post.
A spokesperson for Seaver’s security company SAPS said over the weekend that they were “dismayed by the unexpected and, so far, unexplained actions” by those in charge of Dolly’s estate.
Seaver and his team were reportedly served notice on Wednesday, September 16, that their services were no longer required at Dolly’s Nashville home, museum and warehouse. They were immediately replaced by an entirely new security staff.
“We remain unshakably resolved to fulfill her final directive to protect her family, and we refuse to be intimidated by those whose actions we believe are being taken in bad faith and with the intent to profit from the life of someone who willingly gave so much,” Seaver’s spokesperson told TMZ.
Court documents obtained by Us on Wednesday shed new light on an apparent dispute between Seaver and Dolly’s executors in the days before her death at age 80 on August 25.
She’s Alive, LLC — the organization Dolly appointed to look after her business interests following her death — filed a motion earlier this week, asking for a restraining order against Seaver to be immediately granted.
Parton’s manager Danny Nozell and fellow executors alleged in their court filing that Seaver threatened to use his “self-proclaimed military-contractor experience, access to weapons, and capacity for violence to extort [Parton’s estate] into giving into his demands for money.”
Per She’s Alive, LLC, Seaver allegedly sent a string of threatening text messages where he described himself as “literally an international arms dealer and mercenary.”
“Her money better be bigger than I can make elsewhere or I’m going to f*** everyone. I am about to become the hand of retribution for my entire family,” Seaver allegedly wrote in one message.
Another purported text message allegedly read, “I’m going to set up a podcast dedicated to ruining Dolly’s brand partnership and telling the violations these people have done on us.”
“I am [seeking] vengeance for my people for the next 50 years. I have no debt. I only own swords and guns,” Seaver allegedly wrote to Nozell. “All I have is animosity and memory. But I’m going to spend the next times I have on earth ratf***ing anyone that has ever betrayed my family… All I do is warfare… Everyone needs to be worried about what I might do.”
Bryan Seaver Courtesy Instagram / Dolly Parton
Seaver responded in a statement to TMZ in which he denied he’d ever directly threatened Nozell or anyone from She’s Alive, LLC.
“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,” Seaver told the outlet. “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,” Seaver went on to say. “A lot of these messages are two guys having rage-talk and crying on the phone together while we were grieving.”
As for the alleged “ratf***ing” threat,” Seaver said, “I was talking about people that have done bad to Dolly in business — a specific company that scared her and intimidated her. Those comments were about specific, horrible business partners that have done wrong to her and I stand by that.”
The dispute is particularly shocking since Seaver was chosen by Dolly on behalf of her family to announce her death via an Instagram video last month. (Seaver’s mother is Dolly’s sister Cassie Parton.)
“As her head of security for more than two decades — a role my father Larry held before me — I have imagined the heaviness of this moment but haven’t truly felt it until now,” Seaver said in a video statement posted on Parton’s official Instagram account on August 25. “It is an honor — an honor that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness. But sadness lies with us, not with Dolly. Dolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by [late husband] Carl, her parents and countless others who have watched over her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens.”
Us has reached out to Seaver’s company for comment.
