By Mark Savage

Copyright bbc

Parton did not disclose the nature of her health issues, but she was recently forced to pull out of a Dollywood event after being diagnosed with a kidney stone that she said was causing “a lot of problems”.

“Turned out it’d given me an infection, and the doctor said, ‘You don’t need to be travelling right this minute, so you need a few days to get better,'” she said in a video recorded for fans who attended the event on 17 September.

Earlier this year, she lost her beloved husband Carl after more nearly 60 years of marriage.

She later dedicated a new song, If You Hadn’t Been There, to his memory.