Whether you’re a fan of her music or her long-standing philanthropy over the years, it’s safe to say Dolly Parton is quite a living legend. And while fans of the country music star might know a lot about her, there’s one aspect of her life that continues to keep fans guessing: her longtime marriage to Carl Thomas Dean.
After all, in all the years Parton has graced the stages and red carpets, Dean has opted to stay away from the limelight and supported her behind the scenes instead. And while we still would love to see those two rock the carpet someday, we applaud the two for keeping their relationship away from the nosy eyes of fans.
Luckily, however, while the two remain lowkey in their almost 58-year marriage, Parton has often gushed about her husband to the media. From what makes them a great match, to why they decided to not have kids, Parton has revealed details about their ultra-private relationship here and there.
We’ve compiled a list of everything she’s once said about her hubby.
In honor of Parton’s 79th birthday today, check out everything we know about the lovebirds below!
Their First Moments
In a 1976 interview with the New York Times, the “Jolene” singer opened up about meeting Dean for the very first time. According to Parton, the two met on her first day after moving to Nashville.
“I was at the Laundromat, the Wishy‐Washy‐‐I’d come to Nashville with dirty clothes. I was in such a hurry to get here—and after I’d put my clothes in the machine, I started walkin’ down the street, just lookin’ at my new borne, and this guy hollered at me, and I waved,” Parton remembered. “Bein’ from the country, I spoke to everybody. And he came over and, well, it was Carl, my husband.”
Despite their initial connection, however, Parton was determined to take it slow. “I wouldn’t go out with him,” she said.” I mean, that was somethin’ we was taught. You gotta know somebody or they may take you on a back road and kill you. But I said, ‘You’re welcome to come up to the house tomorrow because I’m baby‐sittin’ my little nephew.'”
“He came up every day that week and we set out on the porch. I wouldn’t even take him in the house,” the singer remembered.
Then, on the first day Parton no longer had to baby-sit, Dean brought her to meet his parents. “He said he knew right the minute he saw me that that’s the one he wanted,” she remembered. When you know, you know!
Wedding Bells
Two years after meeting, Parton and Dean tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in Georgia at the Ringgold Baptist Church, Elle reports. In attendance was the couple, the pastor, and Parton’s mother, Avie Lee Owens.
“I said, ‘I’ve got to have momma there,'” the singer once remembered. “So I had bought a little dress, momma had bought me a Bible, some flowers on it. We grabbed momma and went back, and got married on a Monday, in a church.” How sweet!
Always Supporting
Parton once talked about how supportive Dean has been throughout her career and success, despite wanting a much quieter life for himself. “He never tried to make me give it up,” Parton told the New York Times of her career. “And he’s proud of me, but he’s not necessarily a fan. He don’t particularly like to hear me sing.” That makes one of us, Dean!
Not Her Plus One
While Parton and Dean may have all the connection and spark in the world at home, Dean has remained out of the spotlight over the years. According to Parton, it was a decision he made after being her plus one to an event many years ago.
“Carl has never been in the limelight and all, never wanted to be in it. He don’t like it,” Parton said in an episode of What Would Dolly Do?, per Southern Living. “He went to one thing with me early on, when we first married, to a BMI Song of the Year [event], and he came out of there taking off his tuxedo, his tie and all that and said, ‘Don’t ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going.’ I never asked him and he never did.”
Boundaries and set and respected, we love to see it!
Their Secrets to Making It Work
When asked about the secrets of making her longtime marriage work, Parton spared no details back in 2022. “We’re not in each other’s face all the time,” she told Entertainment Tonight at the time.”He’s not in the business so we have different interests, but yet we have the things we love to do together.”
“So it was meant to be, I think,” she added. “He was the one I was supposed to have and vice versa.”
And, in addition to knowing how to spend time apart while also enjoying their time together, Parton said their sense of humor also played a big role. “We both have a warped sense of humor,” she added. “And I think humor, honestly, is one of the best things when you’re married like that. Even if you have a problem, if you have a great sense of humor, if you say something you can’t take back [you] usually have some crazy way of getting out of it.”
Keeping Some Distance
In another interview where the outlet asked about the secret to their relationship, Parton admitted having some distance might be the key.
“I always joke and laugh when people ask me what’s the key to my long marriage and lasting love,” Parton told People in 2018. “I always say ‘Stay gone! and there’s a lot of truth to that. I travel a lot, but we really enjoy each other when we’re together and the little things we do.”
Their Little Traditions
Together, Parton and Dean love to share some simple traditions, like getting fast food together.
“Carl and I have a little camper, a little RV, and we’re always driving through fast food restaurants to get our stuff,” she said in a 2016 Sirius XM interview with Andy Cohen, per Country Living. “That’s one of the things we do. I’m always in the front seat. Sometimes they know me, sometimes they don’t.”
“We do whatever feels happy and comfortable with us,” she said of their date nights. “It’s hard for me to get him to dress up to go to a nice dinner because he’s just a country boy and hates that stuff. We do whatever’s good. We have a good time.”
No Parents Over Here
Throughout their five decades together, Parton and Dean did not welcome any kids together. According to Parton, that’s a decision they made together and haven’t regretted it since.
“I used to think I should regret it,” Parton told Billboard of their decision. “Early on, when my husband and I were dating, and then when we got married, we just assumed we would have kids. We weren’t doing anything to stop it. In fact, we thought maybe we would. We even had names if we did, but it didn’t turn out that way.”
“Now I say, ‘God didn’t mean for me to have kids so everybody’s kids could be mine,'” she said. “I’m very close to my family — five of my younger brothers and sisters lived with me and Carl for many years — and we’re very close to our nieces and nephews.”
“Now that Carl and I are older, we often say, ‘Aren’t you glad we didn’t have kids? Now we don’t have kids to worry about,'” she concluded. Fair enough!
Not-So-Open Marriage
Parton has also been open over the years about how she and Dean keep their spark alive, and it includes some harmless flirting.
“Short, fat, bald or skinny — I’ve had crushes on some very unusual men,” she said in her documentary for Channel 5, Dolly Parton: In Her Own Words, per DailyMail. And while the confession might sound some alarms, Parton denied it being a sort of infidelity. “Carl knows I’ll always come home and I’m not having sex with these people — I’m just flirting and having fun.”
“He’s not jealous and I’m not jealous of him. He knows I flirt. He flirts too,” she continued.
“Yes, it’s an open relationship, but not sexually and I would kill him if I thought he was doing that. He would shoot me too,” she added. “At the end of the day we love each other madly.”
She Loves This About Him
In a resurfaced interview with People back in 1977, Parton talked about her husband, saying, “He’s sort of shy and quiet. What we have together is so sweet and good that I’d never want it to get jumbled up with the other.”
Time Apart Is the Key to Her Marriage
In a recent interview with EOnline, Parton talked about how spending time apart is the key to their marriage.
“I’m just saying, anything new gets old. And I think if you just kind of stay together so much, you just nitpick every little thing and notice all that,” she said. “It’s worked for us because we both do different things and it’s exciting when we are together. So the fact that there’s some little space that makes it exciting when you go home.”
How They Spend Time Together
“We just enjoy each other,” she said to EOnline. “I like to cook. And one of the things that we like to do—not necessarily a date night, we have a lot of date days—we have our little RV and we like to travel around. Going down and get some food or I’ll make a picnic and we go down to the river and have a picnic and just kind of ride around and do our little things.”
If Her A-List Pals Know Him
Okay, so technically, Dolly didn’t reveal this, but we’re counting it because one of her A-list pals, Reba McEntire revealed in Oct 2024 that she has never met Carl Dean.
“[Parton has] never invited me over,” she said to Andy Cohen, also revealing she’s never met her pal’s husband. “I saw something the other day that they were out camping, and she and Carl went back to where they got married.”
What the Holidays Are Like
In an interview with ENews, Parton revealed what gift giving is like during the holidays for the two lovebirds. “Carl and I have never bought big fancy presents for each other,” she said. “When I see things through the years that I think he would like, when I’m out, I’ll just kind of collect stuff and give them to him.”
She added, “He loves to work over at the barn. He also loves to work outside. So, I’m always buying tools of different kinds.”
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