Dolly Parton fans were thrilled over the weekend after the music legend seemingly joined TikTok — but it turns out everyone just got duped.
“Woohoo! Well hello, I guess I’m on TikTok!” Parton appeared to say in a video posted to @itsdollyparton. “I just dropped in to say everything’s gonna be okay, you keep the faith, and to remind you that I’ll be on tonight reading a story at 7 o’clock eastern time.”
She finished out the colorful video with a little song and more words of encouragement, making it easy to see why fans believed the account to be real.
But a spokesperson for Parton told the Today show that the video was actually from an old clip from Dolly’s Imagination Library TikTok — which certainly explains the bit about reading a story later.
While the spokesperson called the clip “doctored,” the only difference appears to be the removal of the “@imaginationlibrary” overlay on the original clip.
Fans first got the hint that something may be wrong when @itsdollyparton disappeared from the platform by Monday evening, although many thought she must have been accidentally banned at the time.
TikTok has since confirmed that they removed the account after being tipped off to its inauthenticity.
While fans are feeling super let down after realizing the “Jolene” singer hasn’t actually joined TikTok, one thing this quick but painful debacle has proven is there is certainly more than enough demand for the real Dolly Parton to join the platform and share little uplifting snippets to brighten everyone’s day.