Country megastar Dolly Parton assured fans she’s taking care of herself after facing a series of health issues while grieving her late husband, Carl Dean.

The “Jolene” singer offered the update on Friday during the opening day celebration of her Tennessee theme park, Dollywood. The park kicked off its 41st season since opening in 1986.

The update comes after she postponed a string of concerts last year, citing her health.

“I’ve been up to a lot,” she said of the last six months, per footage of her keynote address shared by WVLT 8.

“I’ve not been touring, as you know,” Parton, who turned 80 in January, continued. “I’ve had a few little health issues, and we’re taking good care of them.”

Parton also touched on life without Dean, whom she was married to for nearly six decades before his death in March 2025. He was 82 years old.

“I just kind of got worn down and worn out, grieving over Carl and a lot of other little things going on,” Parton said. “I just got myself kind of where I needed to build myself back up spiritually, emotionally and physically.”

Despite all of her challenges, Patron proclaimed that everything “is good. It didn’t slow me down.”

The country crooner also joked about Eugene Naughton, president of the Dollywood Company, as he joined her onstage. She told fans not to confuse him for a romantic interest before confirming that she is not dating anyone new.

“I think Carl Dean’s waiting for me,” she said. “If I should show up at the pearly gates with somebody else, he would not like that. He’d be saying, ‘Who’s that little (expletive)? You leave him outside the gates.'”

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NEW YORK — Nearly one year after he was diagnosed with a rare neurological condition, Billy Joel is on the mend and hopes to make it back out on tour, his daughter Alexa Ray Joel revealed.

“He’s doing physical therapy regularly and he’s doing great,” she told the Hollywood Reporter.

“He’s lost weight as he’s on his diet. I’m so proud of him,” 40-year-old Alexa Ray continued. “He’s such a trooper, so resilient and committed to being healthy and proactive. He’s a fighter. He’s always been a fighter and talks in his documentary about how life’s like a fight.”

“The New York State of Mind” singer shares Alexa Ray with his ex-wife Christie Brinkley. He also has daughters Della Rose, 10, and Remy Anne, 8, with his current wife, Alexis Roderick.

The musician shared last May that he’d been diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when fluid buildup disrupts brain function and can “affect several brain-related abilities, including thinking and concentrating, memory, movement and more,” according to the Cleveland Clinic.

A statement on Joel’s Instagram at the time said the condition had “been exacerbated by recent concert performances, leading to problems with hearing, vision and balance.” It came shortly after the “Piano Man” crooner suffered a fall on stage at the Mohegan Sun.

“He played it down,” Alexa Ray said of the incident. “He knows I have anxiety and am a neurotic worrier, so he was like, ‘Everything’s fine. It was just a little trip.’ When I saw the footage, I was crying. But then I went with him to the doctors, and we’re on top of everything. I just tell him to stay healthy.”

Alexa Ray added that her father is aspiring to go back on tour, but said she has ground rules in place for when that happens.

“Once a performer, always a performer!” she says. “But health comes first. I said, ‘If you’re going to perform again, please stay seated at the piano. No throwing the microphone stand around!’”

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NEW YORK — Cher’s son Chaz Bono, from her marriage to the late Sonny Bono, has tied the knot with childhood friend Shara Blue Mathes, amid younger half brother Elijah Blue Allman’s recent arrests.

Bono, 57, has been in a relationship with Mathes — who has a 25-year-old son from a prior relationship — since early 2017.

The couple wed last weekend at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Roosevelt hotel. They met at Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute as teens “more than 40 years ago,” Bono told People.

“I think it’s safe to say that not many grooms ultimately end up marrying the very first girl they ever kissed so many years later,” said a beaming Bono, whose gender transition was the subject of the Emmy-nominated 2011 documentary, “Becoming Chaz.”

The newlyweds wrote on their wedding website that their “life journeys continued over the years until we reconnected.”

Cher, 79, attended the nuptials — which had a “Hollywood Glam Formal” dress code.

The Grammy winner’s youngest child, meanwhile, has had a rougher go of it in recent weeks and years.

In late February, 49-year-old Allman, son of late musician Gregg Allman, was arrested multiple times over a single weekend in New Hampshire.

Allman was arrested at the end of February for assault and trespassing at a prep school. Two days later, he was charged with burglary, criminal mischief, and breach of bail after he allegedly broke into a residence and smoked on the couch.

The arrests follow Allman’s hospitalization for a reported overdose in June 2025, just over a year after the “Believe” singer suspended her conservatorship over him.

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By Tribune News Service