Dolly Parton’s niece, Jada Star Roberts, says her aunt was thinking of others in her final days, choosing to keep her health problems quiet so as not to worry her fans. “We … kept all that stuff real private,” Roberts, who goes by the stage name Jada Star, said during an exclusive interview with “Extra’s” Mona Kosar Abdi.
“And so, she never wanted to worry anybody.” Roberts, who is also a singer and a songwriter, said that her aunt’s death has been “really difficult and very surreal” for the family, but the outpouring of love from the country music legend’s fans has been “really bittersweet.” “All of these tributes have helped so much to help us all through it,” Parton’s niece said about the support from her aunt’s fans.
Parton, a legendary country music and pop singer, died Aug. 25 at age 80 following a battle with cancer. The music icon’s nephew, Bryan Seaver, announced her death on behalf of the Parton and Owens family, saying the country music icon “has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus.” Reflecting on her aunt and her passing, Roberts told Extra, “I can’t remember a life without her.
She would also tell us to start drying it up and start trying to get back to work and love each other real hard. She was just a trip.” Roberts appeared on the ABC reality competition series “Claim to Fame” in July 2023 under the pseudonym “Jane.” Parton’s niece was one of a dozen relatives of celebrities on the show, in which the contestant who can successfully conceal their identity for the entire season wins $100,000.
She was eliminated from the show after she failed to identify another contestant's famous relative. Once she was eliminated, her connection to Parton was revealed,