The legal dispute involving Dolly Parton’s nephew Bryan Seaver continued to draw attention after members of the Parton family publicly insisted that the controversy had not divided them.
Freida Parton and Stella Parton both defended Seaver after She’s Alive, LLC, filed a lawsuit against him on September 22. The company, which Parton had set up to safeguard her professional property and business interests, accused her former head of security of making threatening comments and trying to pressure people connected to the late singer’s business.
Source reveals the effect of Dolly Parton’s nephew drama on her family
Despite the public support from his relatives, a source said the dispute had hit those mourning Parton particularly hard.
“The news around Bryan is shocking and a gut punch to a grieving city,” the insider said.
The legal fight surfaced less than a month after Parton’s death on August 25. Nashville marked the one-month anniversary on September 25 with a citywide memorial.
The Dolly Parton estate lawsuit accused Seaver of creating “fear and chaos to extort money for his personal gain.” Court filings also alleged that he made violent comments referencing his military background and threatened to damage Parton’s business partnerships through a podcast.
As per PEOPLE, Seaver strongly denied threatening anyone.
“I’ve never threatened anyone,” he said. “They are my friends and my brothers and colleagues.”
He also addressed one allegation involving his use of the word “killer.” Seaver said Parton had used that nickname for him privately and argued that others had taken the remark out of context.
“Dolly called me her killer. It was a joke we used around her camp,” he said.
The filings further claimed that Parton’s trusts and estates lawyer resigned after allegedly receiving threatening messages from Seaver. They also alleged that other employees left because they feared him.
However, Seaver’s relatives rejected the idea that the controversy had created a broader family battle.
Freida wrote that there was “no feud within our family” and said the Parton/Owens family still loved Seaver. Stella similarly said the family remained “still intact and moving forward.”
The source, meanwhile, framed the dispute as particularly painful because Nashville and Parton’s loved ones were still grieving her death.
The court had scheduled an injunction hearing for October 7, leaving the allegations and Seaver’s denials unresolved.
This story originally appeared on Realitytea
