CNN issued an apology to Dolly Parton’s family after mistakenly broadcasting a photo of a Las Vegas tribute performer instead of the country music legend during coverage of her death, the network confirmed Thursday.
The network aired an image of Kelly Vohnn, a longtime tribute artist who has portrayed Ms. Parton throughout her career, during “Laura Coates Live” roughly 12 hours after Ms. Parton’s death was announced by her family Tuesday. Ms. Vohnn, 58, said she learned of the mix-up when friends began texting her, stunned to see her on CNN.
“We regret the error and apologize to the Parton family,” CNN said in a statement to the New York Post.
Ms. Vohnn said the photo used by CNN was taken in December at a Las Vegas red-carpet screening. She said she has never presented herself as Ms. Parton, calling herself “a tribute act for her and many other stars.”
“Somebody at CNN really messed up and didn’t do their research,” she told the Post, adding that she considered contacting the network herself but was too consumed by grief over Ms. Parton’s death to follow up.
Ms. Parton, 80, died Tuesday at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville after what her team described as a brief battle with cancer.
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