ITV News presenter Mary Nightingale appeared to be hit hard by Dolly Parton’s death as she announced the sad news on Tuesday evening.
The newsreader, 63, shared the latest story during the 6.30pm program and viewers at home noticed Mary ‘welling up’ as she read the report.
Mary seemed noticeably shaken by the news and her voice broke as she delivered the update to viewers at home, at one point telling her to “take a deep breath.”
The breaking news was announced just before an advertisement and Mary said: ‘Just before we go to break tonight, I’m afraid there’s some very sad news. Country legend Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80.
Returning from the break, she continued: ‘It has just been announced that the beloved American country singer and songwriter Dolly Parton has passed away at the age of 80.
‘Born in Tennessee just after the war, she released her first album in 1967 and had a music career that spanned 60 years.
ITV News presenter Mary Nightingale appeared to be hit hard by Dolly Parton’s death as she announced the sad news on Tuesday evening.
The newsreader, 63, shared the latest story during the 6.30pm program and viewers at home saw Mary ‘well up’ as she read the report.
“During the time Dolly Parton won a string of Grammy and Emmy Awards, she was also an actor and founded a foundation to educate local children and tackle poverty.”
After a news package was shown detailing Dolly’s incredible life, Mary said, “And take a deep breath . . .”
Viewers noticed Mary’s wobble but said they found the moment endearing as she was clearly affected by the news.
They said: ‘Aw Mary Nightingale on ITV News, gushing as she broke the news just now. The world is a poorer place tonight; ‘One of the most beautiful and sincere people this world has ever given to men. A real loss for so many. Even Mary Nightingale on ITV News struggled to break the news until the end of the show’; ‘ITV News reader sounded quite choked up about Dolly’;
‘I find it really endearing how moved the newsreader on ITV News is about the loss of Dolly Parton. It also makes me quite emotional, it reminds me of my grandmother who lost in 2023.’
The legendary country singer’s death was confirmed in an Instagram video posted by her cousin Bryan Seaver, who was also her head of security.
She died that morning after being admitted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville on Friday with autoimmune and kidney problems. TMZ.
Dolly’s loved ones rushed to Nashville when they heard the news of her hospitalization last week, but not everyone was able to reach her while she was still alive.
“This video announcement is something that Dolly asked of me years ago before I fully absorbed it as a future reality,” Seaver revealed.
Viewers noticed Mary’s wobble but said they found the moment endearing as she was clearly affected by the news
He praised his aunt for “living in the light” and said she was now “in the arms of Jesus” and in the company of her late husband Carl Dean, as well as her parents and “countless others who have watched her and longed to meet her in heaven.”
Often referred to as the Queen of Country, Dolly enjoyed an illustrious music career that spanned six decades and was perhaps best known for her hits Jolene and 9 to 5.
Her death followed months of health problems that saw her withdraw from a series of public appearances, fueling fans’ fears for her well-being.
Seaver fondly remembers joining Dolly on tour as a child in the 1980s, saying she “opened doors not only for me, but for her entire family to reach the potential we didn’t even know was possible.”
He characterized her as ‘a farmer’s wife, just like her father; he tilled the ground, she tilled songs and happiness. Dolly called me and said she wants to rest in a beautiful plush cotton bed, because after a lifetime of wearing heavy rhinestones, she finally deserves to be comfortable and have some rest.’
In an interview published just four days before her death, Dolly had stated that she still had “so many things I want to achieve” and vowed to “keep working as long as I can to see everything come to life,” via People.
She explained that she was struggling with “some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl.”
The fourth of twelve children, Dolly was born on January 19, 1946 in Pittman Center, Tennessee.
She and her siblings – Willadeene, David Wilburn, Coy Denver, Bobby Lee, Stella Mae, Cassie Nan, Randel Huston “Randy,” Larry Gerald, twins Estel Floyd and Freida Estelle, and Rachel Ann – grew up in the Great Smoky Mountains, sleeping on straw beds and living without running water, gas or electricity.
Dolly had developed a love of music at an early age, singing regularly on local radio and making television appearances as a child in East Tennessee before releasing her first single, Puppy Love, at age 13.
In 2008, Dolly told NPR that her 1973 song Jolene was partly inspired by a local bank teller who flirted with her late husband.
“She was deeply in love with my husband,” she said at the time. “And he just loved going to the couch because she paid so much attention to him.
“It was kind of like a running joke between us when I said, ‘You spend a lot of time at the bank. I don’t think we have that much money.’
Dolly is pictured in her latest Instagram post, which was uploaded on August 12
Years later, she told a crowd at the Glastonbury Festival about the song: “I wrote that years ago when my husband… was spending a little more time with Jolene than I thought he should be.
‘I stopped doing that. I quickly got rid of that red-haired woman.”
Dolly’s 1974 hit, I Will Always Love You, was written about the experience of cutting ties with her former business partner and mentor Porter Wagoner as she set her sights on pursuing a solo career.
The song reached number one on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, first in June 1974 and then again in October 1982.
Dolly refused to let Elvis Presley record his own version after his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, demanded that she sign over half of the publishing rights.
“I wouldn’t let Colonel Tom Parker do that,” she recalled in an interview with BBC Radio 2 in 2023.
“Look, Elvis loved the song. I spoke to Priscilla not too long ago. She said, “You know, Elvis sang that song to me as we walked down the courthouse steps when we got divorced.”
The Queen of Country enjoyed a music career that spanned no less than six decades
Dolly’s well-known hits include Jolene, 9 to 5, and I Will Always Love You
The musician, pictured with her mother Avie Lee, won eleven Grammy Awards and three Emmy Awards during her lifetime
“He loved the song, wanted to do it, when it was done they had already called me to come to the studio to meet him, and to participate and hear the song.
“And the night before, Colonel Tom Parker called me and said, ‘Well, you know we don’t shoot anything with Elvis unless we publish about it, or at least half the publications.’
“Well, I said, because it had a number one song on it, I said, ‘This is the most important copyright in my entire publishing company, and I can’t do that.’
She added that Parker said they couldn’t do that, and the song fell apart, while Dolly added that she was “heartbroken” because she always wanted to hear Presley sing it.
She was proven right in her determination to retain the rights when Whitney Houston recorded the song for her 1992 film The Bodyguard, after which it became a thundering international hit that took the soundtrack album to 18 times platinum.
