Dolly Parton: Her Lifelong Battle With Mental Illness

Dolly Parton has turned 71 years old as one of the world's most beloved stars — but only after battling depression for years! The country diva has bravely spoken out about her secret fight to survive suicidal urges, even as she selflessly gave both time and money to help out her hometown residents after a devastating fire.

Dolly's telethon for the people of Tennessee's devastated Smokey Mountain region raised millions of dollars after the horrific fires of 2016. The star revealed, however, that her constantly upbeat public image was hiding her decades of battling mental illness — and once plunged into a despair so dark she was seconds away from blowing her brains out!

The "9 to 5" singer has long fought against debilitating depression that she confesses left her “sad-hearted and melancholy” — adding: “There are times when you just don’t want to get up!” The songbird blames her dark funks on being too “tender-hearted,” but also believes some of her mental issues are inherited.

“Depression runs in my family on both sides and I have to be wary,” she said. “If there are problems sometimes, it’s a lot for one little person to carry.” Dolly said that her darkest moment came in 1984 when she learned she had to undergo a partial hysterectomy that would dash her hopes of ever having children. She grew obese and had trouble completing even simple tasks.

During that dark time, the distraught beauty put a loaded gun to her head and was about to pull the trigger when she heard the tap-tap-tap of her beloved dog Popeye scampering up the stairs to see her. She’s now convinced that Popeye was sent by God to save her!

“I don’t think I would have done it,” she said. “And yet I can’t say for sure … It was a really bad time and it took two years just trying to get my physical weight and hormones in order.”

Dolly adds that an unlikely source had saved her from the darkness — crediting the friendship of Sylvester Stallone, her costar in the 1984 box-office bomb "Rhinestone." Dolly said: “Suddenly, I was a middle-aged woman; it hit me all at once. [Sylvester] had a great energy that was really healing.”

But prayer, she added, has been her true salvation through the years. “I have a great faith,” she said. “If it gets to a point where I think I can’t quite handle it, I take it straight to God.”