Freida Parton has broken her silence on Instagram to deny any family feud over her sister Dolly Parton’s estate.
The 63-year-old younger sister of the country music legend posted a statement on Wednesday addressing reports of infighting that have circulated since Dolly’s death last month. Freida’s intervention comes amid a legal battle involving her nephew Bryan Seaver, who was fired from his role as head of security for the late singer and is now subject to a temporary restraining order.
“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,” she wrote on Instagram.
“We all love Bryan, just as we love each other. I love you all.”
Seaver, who publicly announced his aunt’s death, has found himself at the center of a legal storm. A lawsuit filed by She’s Alive, LLC (SAL), Parton’s estate entity, accuses him of launching a campaign of threats and intimidation both before and after the singer’s passing. A temporary restraining order against him was granted on Tuesday, September 22.
The court filing alleges Seaver vowed in writing to “destroy the entire brand” and told Parton’s entertainment attorney: “I’m not an entertainment person. I’m a killer.” The documents claim his conduct began escalating weeks before Dolly’s death and sought emergency relief to prevent further destabilization of SAL’s operations.
Seaver has forcefully rejected the allegations across multiple platforms. In an interview, he denied threatening anyone. “They are my friends and they are my brother and colleagues,” he said.
“Dolly’s manager was at odds with the very people I was calling out, and this was a private discussion used against me as some sort of threat against him.”
Regarding his dismissal, Seaver said: “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.”
He expanded on his defense in comments to the outlet, framing the disputed communications as emotional exchanges between grieving men. “Nothing in this lawsuit were threats and most of the comments I stand by,” Seaver said.
“I was talking frankly in a private way with Danny who I thought was my friend and he fancies himself a gangster.”
Seaver continued: “A lot of these messages are two guys having rage talk and crying on the phone together while we were grieving.”
He has also characterized the restraining order as baseless, saying: “The restraining order is spurious and simply a publicity stunt.”
The estate’s legal filing paints a starkly different picture, describing Seaver as having grown “emboldened” following his aunt’s death and alleging a calculated campaign designed to inflict fear and cause irreparable harm to SAL’s operations without judicial intervention.
Seaver confirmed his firing to ABC News but maintains that his private conversations have been misrepresented as threats. The dispute has exposed raw tensions within the extended Parton family circle during a period of public mourning.
The ‘9 to 5’ singer, who died last month, built a sprawling entertainment empire spanning music, film, and her Dollywood theme park. Her death prompted an outpouring of tributes from fans and fellow artists worldwide, but behind the scenes, the Seaver dispute was already unfolding according to court documents that place the start of his alleged conduct weeks before her passing.
Freida Parton’s Instagram statement represents the first direct family response to the escalating controversy, seeking to project unity even as legal proceedings continue.