There is a lot of drama surrounding Dolly Parton’s estate that involves her nephew, Bryan Seaver.
Seaver served as Parton’s longtime head of security and was fired from his position for making threatening comments towards some of the singer’s business associates. As a result, he was sued by She’s Alive, LLC, which is operated by her longtime manager, Danny Nozell, but Seaver has publicly come out, calling the temporary restraining order a “publicity stunt.”
And with this ongoing situation, a source who spoke to PEOPLE said that the “news around Bryan is shocking and a gut punch to a grieving city,” specifically referencing her home of Nashville.
“That anyone would want to abuse her memory or take advantage of a family and community in grief is despicable and the antithesis of everything Dolly stood for,” the source further told the outlet.
Parton passed at the age of 80 on Tuesday, Aug. 25, after a brief battle with cancer, leaving behind a multimillion-dollar estate that includes her iconic Dollywood amusement park. She and her late husband Carl Dean had no children.
As for Seaver, he was the one who was featured in a video posted to Parton’s Instagram announcing the news of her passing.
“This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality,” he said in the video. “As her head of security for more than two decades, a role my father Larry held before me, I have imagined the heaviness of this moment but haven’t truly felt it until now.”
Bryan Seaver Breaks His Silence On Restraining Order
In a statement to ABC News, Seaver called the restraining order issued by Nozell “spurious and simply a publicity stunt.”
“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,” Seaver said. “A week later they fired me for these contrived ‘threats.’”
Part of the suit against Seaver also included notes that he referred to himself as “her killer,” but he says those were taken completely out of context as that was a nickname Parton had actually given him.
“Dolly called me her killer. It was a joke we used around her camp,” Seaver said. “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,” he added.
Parton’s Family ‘At War’ Over Estate Drama
According to RadarOnline, the family, which includes Parton’s siblings and her dozens of nieces and nephews, have been feuding over her estate, which is the last thing Parton wanted to happen.
“Dolly was very upset by the fighting that went on in her family,” a source told the outlet. “It’s a big reason why she was so meticulous in organizing her estate and where everything would go prior to her passing.”
“She dotted every ‘i’ and crossed every ‘t’ so there would be no fighting,” the source added. “Or so she hoped.”
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Dolly Parton Estate Drama Called ‘Shocking’ and ‘Antithesis’ of the Icon’s Legacy