It could be said that Dolly Parton left the world in a worse state after her death, even after contributing so much to making it better through her music, her philanthropic work, and simply by being in the world. Yet her passing has also left a messy situation, even within her own family circles.
Dolly Parton’s estate has filed a lawsuit against her nephew, Bryan Seaver, who had spent years serving as the singer’s security chief, and has requested a restraining order against him. He was the first person to announce Dolly’s death on social media.
According to the filing, Seaver began pressuring the estate for money and sent several messages containing fairly strong threats. In one message, he allegedly wrote “I’m a killer,” and in another he claimed to be “an international arms dealer and a mercenary,” stating that everything he did was “war.”
Seaver stopped working as the security chief for Parton’s properties last week. The complaint also states that some workers left out of fear of his threats, and that the estate wants to prevent him from getting close to its offices, businesses, and collaborators.
You’ll never guess what the nephew said in his defense: he claims his messages have been taken out of context. “I am a security professional and I am a killer,” he said, confirming that he works as a military man and contractor and that he indeed participates in weapons operations for foreign governments. According to him, his comments referred to certain business partners who, in his view, had done bad things to Parton.
Parton died last August at the age of 80 after a cancer she had kept private. It has now come to light that, roughly a year before her death, she secretly traveled to Germany to undergo an experimental cancer treatment. According to TMZ, she flew by private plane to Frankfurt, stayed there about a week, and returned to the United States convinced that the treatment had helped her regain strength. It has not been made public what type of cancer she had or exactly what the treatment entailed.
