How Khloé Kardashian Related to Dolly Parton During Their 2025 Interview: ‘My Family Is Also in on the Joke’ (Exclusive)
How Khloé Kardashian Related to Dolly Parton During Their 2025 Interview: ‘My Family Is Also in on the Joke’ (Exclusive)
Gillian TellingWed, September 30, 2026 at 3:25 AM UTC
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Khloe Kardashian in 2025, and Dolly Parton in 2022Credit: Khloe Kardashian/Instagram; Miller Mobley/NBC via Getty -
Khloé Kardashian praised the late Dolly Parton for embracing her signature style and enthusiasm without apologizing for others’ reactions
The reality star said living publicly with her famous family helped her relate to Parton’s self-aware outlook
Kardashian traveled to Tennessee for the 2025 interview and believes it may have been among Parton’s final podcast appearances
Khloé Kardashian is looking back at her 2025 Khloé in Wonder Land interview with Dolly Parton, and remembering the music icon as an inspiration when it came to being unapologetically herself.
“She was angelic and majestic and positive,” Kardashian, whose podcast is now entering its fourth season, tells PEOPLE.
“I love the way that she was sort of like a caricature of herself,” Kardashian, 42, continues. “But she loved it and leaned into it and made no apologies for it.”
It’s a philosophy Kardashian says she can relate to — particularly after spending much of her own life in the public eye alongside her famous family.
“She’s in on the joke, and I always think me and my family are also in on the joke,” Kardashian says. “So I really relate to that type of mentality. I really respect that she just did what she loved to do, and it was harmless, and it was for her. And everyone respected it. That’s how we should all treat other, everyone.”
Khloe Kardashian and Dolly Parton in 2025Credit: Khloe Kardashian/Instagram
Kardashian says she knows how fortunate she was to have gotten the opportunity to sit down with Parton, who died at age 80 on Aug. 25 following a “brief battle with cancer.”
“I think I was one of her last podcasts that she did,” Kardashian said. “I flew to Tennessee. I got to be with her. I feel so blessed and fortunate that it happened. I can’t believe how lucky I am.”
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Parton’s outlook on not taking everything so seriously also resonated with the Good American co-founder, who says she loves having casual conversations on her podcast.
“I also love that I can be conversational with my guests, and they can ask me questions back because I am an open book,” Kardashian says with a laugh. “I’m used to being vulnerable. I think I thrive being vulnerable. I don’t like when I have to be too buttoned-up and polished, because that’s just not me.”
Dolly Parton on Khloé in Wonder Land in July 2025Credit: Khloe Kardashian/X
As for facing her critics? Kardashian says she has a trick for when the comments get too mean.
“What’s so interesting is when we started, there was no Instagram, there wasn’t anything like that,” she says of her family being on TV for two decades.
“And so at the beginning, it would maybe be a few petty bloggers and it was easy to not read, because you just wouldn’t go to that site. Now people have access to you no matter where you turn. And so I think I had a few great years, maybe even like a decade of living in bliss before all the comments got mean, so we had to adapt and adjust. That definitely took a minute.”
Kardashian continues, “I would let things get to me so badly. I felt so singled out, like I’m so fat, they all hate me. But then I started going to other people’s pages, like people who were the coolest and most beautiful in my eyes, and they would have the same comments. And I realized, oh it’s not me. It’s them. This is just what people do.”
She notes, “So as much as it sucks for everyone, at least I know I’m not alone!”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
