EXCLUSIVE: EVERYTHING You Need to Know About Dolly Parton's Intimate — and VERY Secretive — Marriage to Late Recluse Husband Carl Dean
Dolly Parton and Carl Dean were married for 60 years but never had children, as the country icon feared becoming a mom may impact her career.
March 4 2025, Published 7:29 a.m. ET
Dolly Parton's marriage to late husband Carl Dean was shrouded in mystery but the country icon made no secret of the fact she adored her reclusive partner.
RadarOnline.com can reveal intimate details about their relationship, which they managed to keep out of the limelight for decades.
Parton and Dean, above, were rarely pictured together throughout their long marriage.
The couple's first meeting in 1964 was hardly the most romantic of locations – the laundromat – and Parton claimed she instantly knew Dean would be her future husband.
She once said: "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 home, and this guy hollered at me, and I waved. Bein' from the country, I spoke to everybody.
"He came over and, well, it was Carl, my husband."
Dean also knew it was love at first sight.
The couple married in 1966 during a very intimate ceremony in Ringgold Baptist Church, Georgia.
In a rare 2016 interview to mark their 50th wedding anniversary, he said: "My first thought was I'm gonna marry that girl.
"My second thought was, 'Lord she's good lookin'.' And that was the day my life began."
Parton and Dean began dating that year but struggled to spent time together, as the singer lived with her aunt and uncle at the time and she didn't want to bring him into the house while she was babysitting her young cousin.
They married after two years of dating, in 1966, despite Parton's manager opposing against her settling down so young, exchanging nuptials during a very intimate ceremony in Ringgold Baptist Church in Ringgold, Georgia, attended by only the pastor Don Duvall, his wife, and Parton's mother, Avie Lee Owens.
Parton admitted one of the secrets behind their long relationship was her and Dean being 'completely opposite' personalities.
In 2015, Parton revealed part of the secret to their enduring love was she and Dean were pleasantly different from each other.
She explained: "They say that opposites attract, and it's true.
"We're completely opposite, but that's what makes it fun. I never know what he's gonna say or do. He's always surprising me."
Despite being together so long, the couple never had any children, which was mainly down to Parton's career.
Parton added: "When you're a young couple, you think you're going to have kids, but it just wasn't one of those burning things for me.
"I had my career and my music and I was traveling. If I'd had kids, I'd have stayed at home with them. I'm sure and worried myself to death about them."
Parton revealed her husband hated going to her showbiz bashes.
Dean had such a minimal presence throughout Parton's career that it was news when he opted to join her in public.
In 1979, Parton's bandleader Gregg Perry had thrown a double surprise party, with one of the guests of honor being Dean.
Perry once mused Parton's husband's "never goes with us, but this week he's made a real exception" – as it was his birthday.
A year later, Dean did make his presence felt when he joined his love on a two-month trip to Los Angeles while she filmed her hit workplace comedy 9 To 5, in which she starred alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.
Parton was hit by rumors Dean was a cheat – which she denied until the end of his life.
Parton's husband made more of a public show of his affection around that period just as his wife was hit by rumors of an affair, which she denied.
Dean was partly the subject of one of Parton's most famous songs, Jolene, a song about a woman angling to steal her man.
But in their later years, the country singer also wrote and recorded more traditional tributes to her longtime love.
Even though Parton had recorded earlier songs as tributes to him, including Tomorrow Is Forever and Say Forever You'll Be Mine (both recorded as duets with Porter Wagoner), she recorded a burst of new Dean-inspired songs in the 2000s and 2010s.
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Parton once used this social media clip, which saw her squeezed into a bunny suit, to wish her husband a happy – and very busty – birthday.
On May 30, 2016, Parton and Dean renewed their vows at their home in Nashville to mark their 50th wedding anniversary.
And they finally took their long-awaited honeymoon, taking a road trip in a RV.
Parton famously posed in a busty black dress and bunny ears for a classic 1978 Playboy cover, and she decided to recreate the iconic image as a treat for Dean on his birthday in 2021.
The hitmaker highlighted her age-defying figure in a similar black dress, though this one had a slightly more conservative fishnet mesh covering her chest
She said: "My husband always loved the original cover, so I was trying to think of something to do to make him happy.
"He still thinks I'm a hot chick, after 57 years, and 'I'm not gonna try to talk him out of that. And I hope he agrees.'"
