Miley Cyrus Mourns Her Godmother Dolly Parton: ‘I Have an Angel by My Side’

One day after the world lost Dolly Parton, Miley Cyrus found the words. On Wednesday, August 26, the day after Parton passed away at the age of 80 following a brief battle with cancer, Cyrus shared a tribute on Instagram that captured what most people who loved Parton were struggling to articulate: that some losses are too large to express fully, and that the most honest thing to do is say so.

“The feeling of losing my Aunt Dolly is beyond what feels right to share,” Cyrus wrote alongside a black-and-white photo of a younger Parton. “Our most sacred moments were private and they’ll stay there behind the stage, beneath the glamour and between our hearts.” She continued: “What I KNOW is Dolly would want me to feel it, write a song about it, and then continue on and be strong. I have an angel by my side. I always have. One of our last conversations was about music and metamorphosis.” She closed the post by reaching outward, away from herself and toward everyone else carrying the same weight. “We’re in this loss together, and we will see her in all of the most beautiful things.”

The bond between Parton and Cyrus was one of the most genuinely tender relationships in American music. Parton made several cameo appearances on Hannah Montana, playing Cyrus’ character’s godmother, a role that mirrored their real life relationship with a closeness that felt too natural to be scripted. The two appeared together at Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party in 2022, collaborated on “Rainbowland” for Cyrus’ 2017 album Younger Now, and reunited for a revamped version of “Wrecking Ball” on Parton’s 2024 LP Rockstar. “I love my Miley,” Parton said simply during a 2023 Billboard interview, and there was nothing complicated or performed about it. That was just the truth.

Parton died peacefully in Nashville on Tuesday, August 25, with the news formally announced to the world by her nephew Bryan Seaver, who had served as her head of security for two decades. “Sadness lies with us, not Dolly,” Seaver said in a video posted to her social media accounts. “Dolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by Carl, her parents and countless others who had watched her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens. She never saw a door she couldn’t open and the doors she opened made and changed history.”

Her husband Carl Dean, to whom she was married for nearly 58 years, had died on March 3, 2025. In the months that followed, Parton was candid about the toll of that grief, telling fans at Dollywood in March 2026 that she had been “worn down and worn out.” She had postponed a Las Vegas residency due to health challenges, and at one point posted on social media to reassure her audience, captioning a photo simply: “I ain’t dead yet.” Tennessee honored her 80th birthday in January by declaring January 19 as Dolly Parton Day. She did not live to see the year end.

The tributes that flooded social media on Tuesday reflected the extraordinary breadth of her reach. Reba McEntire wrote that “there will never ever be another you.” Kacey Musgraves said “the world feels a lot less sparkly all of a sudden.” Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, and Mick Jagger all added their voices to a chorus that spanned genres, generations, and continents. Flags across the nation were lowered to half-staff. The Empire State Building lit up in pink. Fans gathered at the bronze statue of Parton outside the Sevier County Courthouse in her hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee, bringing flowers and handwritten notes to the foot of a monument that had always felt more like a promise than a memorial.

A UMass/YouGov poll conducted in March of this year found that 70 percent of Americans expressed a favorable view of Parton, the highest figure for any person named in the survey, ahead of Barack Obama and Volodymyr Zelensky and twice the favorable rating earned by Taylor Swift. Only five percent of adults said they viewed her unfavorably. In a country that has made disagreement something of a competitive sport, those numbers represent something close to a miracle.

Billy Ray Cyrus posted his own tribute on Tuesday, writing that like every little boy, he had grown up loving Dolly Parton. “She was a part of our lives, on our TVs, right in our living rooms,” he wrote. “Dolly recently sent me a beautiful message, telling me she loved me with her whole heart. I will always love her in the same way, with my whole heart, and I always will.”

Miley Cyrus ended her post with a line that said everything: “My heart breaks for the world, her family and friends who will miss her deeply.” The world, not just herself. That instinct, to hold the collective grief rather than only the personal one, is the kind of thing Dolly Parton spent 80 years teaching the people around her by example. Her goddaughter was paying attention.