Dolly Parton’s Response to Jane Fonda’s Cancer Diagnosis Has Us Tearing Up

• Dolly Parton responded to Jane Fonda’s recent cancer diagnosis.

• She said losing Fonda would be like “losing a sister” to her.

• Thankfully, Fonda revealed she has a “very treatable” form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda go way back. Their iconic friendship started with the groundbreaking 1980 film 9 to 5 (also starring Lily Tomlin), and they went on to remain close, even appearing on-screen together in the final season of Netflix’s Grace and Frankie. So, when Jane Fonda was diagnosed with cancer recently, the news left the “Jolene” singer understandably shaken.

In a September 15 interview with Today, Parton said losing Fonda to the disease would be like “losing a sister.” Thankfully, though, the Klute star’s prognosis is promising—she told fans in a blog post she has “very treatable” B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL).

According to the American Cancer Society, NHL is a type of cancer that starts in white blood cells and usually affects the lymph nodes, and it’s predicted to affect over 80,000 people in 2022. The five-year relative survival rate for all types and stages combined between 2011 and 2017 was 73%.

Parton told Today she hasn’t spoken to Fonda since the news broke. “I have tried, so I would imagine she’s going through her things at the moment,” she said. “She’ll get back to me, though. We don’t talk every day but we have a very special feeling in our hearts—Lily, Jane, and I—since we did the movie 9 to 5.” (In fact, they all three appear in Still Working 9 to 5, an upcoming documentary about the film and how workplace inequity persists today.)

In sharing her diagnosis with the world, Fonda seemed relatively unfazed. After all, she has overcome cancer before. “I’ve had breast cancers and had a mastectomy and come through very well and I will do so again,” she wrote.

Living this long has felt like a miracle in and of itself for Fonda, who didn’t expect to live past 30. At almost 85, she simply wants to finish her final act strong. “Many people have written to me or posted that they have had this type of cancer and have been cancer-free for many decades,” she said in her blog. “Well, I’ll soon be 85 so I won’t have to worry about ‘many decades.’ One will do just fine.”

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