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Dolly Parton has revealed that she has turned down the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice in recent years.
The country star and philanthropist has been mooted for the award, which is the US’ highest civilian honour, for many years, with Barack Obama recently saying that Parton “deserves” the Medal of Freedom.
Speaking on the Today show this week, Parton confirmed that former US President Donald Trump‘s administration offered her the Medal of Freedom twice.
“I couldn’t accept it because my husband was ill, and then they asked me again about it and I wouldn’t travel because of the COVID,” Parton explained.
“Now I feel like if I take it, I’ll be doing politics – so I’m not sure,” she added, while also confirming that she’s already been contacted by Joe Biden‘s administration about the honour.
Parton continued: “But I don’t work for those awards. It’d be nice but I’m not sure that I even deserve it. But it’s a nice compliment for people to think that I might deserve it.”
Last week Parton was announced as one of the guest hosts of the Apple Watch’s new Time To Walk series.
The feature is being billed by Apple as “an inspiring new audio walking experience” which has been “created to encourage users to walk more often and reap the benefits from one of the healthiest activities”.
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