Representatives for Dolly Parton’s estate have been granted an order of protection against the late singer’s nephew and former head of security Bryan Seaver. Seaver is also named in a lawsuit accusing him of threatening to sully his aunt’s legacy and harm her employees, according to documents viewed by People.
Seaver told ABC News that the temporary restraining order was a publicity stunt in what’s shaping up to be a bigger matter.
“I was fired. After the estate negotiated with me and my company for services in perpetuity and agreed to that service provision from my company,” Seaver said in a statement.
He said a week after that deal appeared to be completed, he was fired for what Seaver described as “contrived threats.”
TMZ reported on Monday (Sept 21) that Seaver’s team, which looked over the I Will Always Love You singer’s properties for 20 years including her Nashville, Tennessee, home, had been replaced by the DP Dean Trust team.
She’s Alive, the company overseeing Parton’s businesses, filed for a restraining order against Seaver in Nashville on Tuesday.
The protection order alleges Parton’s middle-aged nephew began conducting “an obscene, deliberate and escalating campaign of threats” against his aunt’s estate shortly before the 80-year-old star died from cancer on Aug 25, according to ABC News.
Seaver is also accused of threatening to “destroy the entire brand” if he doesn’t receive financial compensation he believes he’s owed.
It was Seaver who announced Parton’s death in a video, which he said his aunt instructed him years before she died to record at the time of her death.
“Our family and the team she has entrusted with her legacy will work diligently to ensure her spirit will live with us forever,” he assures fans in that memorial.
Seaver told ABC News he never threatened anyone connected to Parton’s estate. He referred to that team as his friends, brothers and colleagues. –New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
