One of Dolly Parton’s five sisters has hit back at reports of a rift in the family and expressed support for the late country star’s nephew, Bryan Seaver, shortly after he was hit with a restraining order by Parton’s estate.
She’s Alive, LLC, the entity Parton set up to protect her legacy after her death, filed a lawsuit on 22 September alleging that Seaver threatened to smear her reputation and made violent threats against a number of employees.
The reported lawsuit and temporary restraining order landed a day after Seaver was terminated from his role as Parton’s head of security.
Posting a brief statement to Instagram on 23 September, Parton’s younger sister Freida rejected the notion of a family feud.
“Hi I'll say this and this only: there is no feud within our family,” she wrote. “No one among the Parton/Owens family is fighting over Dolly's estate.”
She added: “We all love Bryan, just as we love each other. I love you all!!”
Seaver is the son of the late Larry Seaver – who previously held the position of Parton’s head of security – and Parton’s younger sister Cassie Parton, 75.
The restraining order against Seaver was filed by Parton’s longtime manager, Danny Nozell, on Tuesday (22 September) in a Tennessee court on behalf of She’s Alive LCC, claiming that Seaver’s “terrorising conduct made their continued retention untenable”.
In a lawsuit filed in Davidson County Chancery Court, She's Alive LLC (SAL) alleged that Seaver waged a campaign of threats, harassment and intimidation on Parton's family and those entrusted to protect her brand.
As Variety reported, the filing went on to allege that Seaver threatened Nozell and various other employees in an attempt to extort money, calling himself a “killer” and “literally an international arms dealer and mercenary.”
He allegedly added: “All I do is warfare.”
In a statement to TMZ, Seaver denied the allegation that he was attempting to extort money from the estate, but maintained other claims were simply taken out of context.
“I am a career soldier and military contractor and do conduct arms deals for foreign governments,” Seaver told the publication. “I am a security professional and I am a killer.”
He continued: “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. A lot of these messages are two guys having rage talk and crying on the phone together while we were grieving.”
In a separate statement to ABC News, Seaver described the restraining order against him as “spurious and simply a publicity stunt”.
He again suggested his words had been misconstrued, saying: “Dolly called me her killer. It was a joke we used around her camp. I was her ‘baby boy ninja’ and Danny Nozell took that text out of context to somehow imagine that I was threatening him. He’s always called me The Killer. I’ve never threatened anyone ... They are my friends and my brothers and colleagues.”
Seaver added: “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. A week later they fired me for these contrived ‘threats’.”
