Country icon Dolly Parton's SECRET memoir sells for $13m after a heated publishing bidding war, two months after her death

The rights to the secret memoir went to Grand Central Publishing following a bidding war that stalled at $12 million, then reignited when publishers doubted the asking price was real. The final figure reportedly hit $13 million, though the true sum was reportedly lower but included an unusually generous 50/50 royalty split for Parton's estate.

Her manager Danny Nozell revealed she left her team a decades-long 'project roadmap', with a Broadway musical, Nashville hotel and further posthumous releases still to come.

At $13 million the deal ranks among the biggest celebrity memoir advances ever, behind only Britney Spears' $15 million deal for 'The Woman in Me'.