
By Nasima Khatun
Parton has opened up about her relationship with her husband. Credit: Theo Wargo/WireImage/Getty
The country singer might be one of the most famous women in the world, adored by many men and women alike, but she’s made it very clear that her heart has always and will always remain with her husband Carl Dean.
While they may stand by each other as a couple, you won’t catch Dean here in public.
Parton revealed that her husband does not do public events after attending an award show with his wife and feeling “so uncomfortable.”
Speaking to Bunnie DeFord on the ‘Dumb Blonde’ podcast, the 78-year-old opened up about her man’s decision.
“He said: ‘Look, now I want you to do everything you want to do, and I wish you the best, but don’t ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going,'” Parton recalled. “And he never did.”
“He loves music, but he’s not the least bit interested in being in it,” the country music icon added. “And he told me that right up front.”
Parton gave an insight into the pair’s relationship in her 2017 book ‘Dolly on Dolly, Interviews and Encounters with Dolly Parton’, where she hinted about having an “open relationship” with her husband.
“Men are my weakness. Short, fat, bald, or skinny — I’ve had crushes on some very unusual men but Carl knows I’ll always come home and I’m not having sex with these people – I’m just flirting and having fun.”
“He would shoot me too. At the end of the day we love each other madly,” she added.
Parton opened up about her “open relationship” with her husband. Credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty/SXSW
The pair share no children together despite them being married for over five decades.
“When my husband and I were dating, and then when we got married, we just assumed we would have kids,” she said. “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.”
She added: “God has a plan for everything. I think it probably was his plan for me not to have kids so everybody’s kids could be mine.”