Dolly Parton kept heartbreaking secret from most of her family

Dolly Parton is no more, but before her sad death, her sister Stella now reveals she kept a secret close to her chest.

She hid it to an extent that, according to the pop icon's sister, "a lot of family" had no idea.

That is about her cancer.

“Dolly did not want anybody to tell that because Dolly could not bear negative things," Stella said during her appearance on CBS Mornings.

"She would not have wanted her fans worried about it."

Stella continued, "She didn’t want a lot of the family worried about it. Some of us knew, the ones that were closer, but not every relative."

"She did not want people sad. She’d be really happy and delighted that people have shown her so much love [after her death] because she knew that that would make us feel better as her family."

"Bottom line, end of the day, her family and Carl’s family and probably Judy’s family are the people that she would want to say, ‘See, everything I did, they cared. They really loved me,'" Stella concluded.

Parton died on Aug 25. She was 80.