Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Dolly Parton and her late husband, Carl Dean, never had children during their 60 years of marriage.
The 79-year-old singer shared a statement on social media on Monday to announce that Dean had passed away that same day in Nashville, Tennessee. She did not share the cause of his death.
Throughout her relationship, Parton spoke candidly about why she and Dean had decided against having children. During a 2023 interview with Saga Magazine, she was asked if she regretted not starting a family.
“I haven’t missed it like I thought I might,” she explained. “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.”
She said that if she had children, she would spend too much time worrying about them
“And [I’d] worry myself to death about them,” she added. “With everything that’s going on, I’d hate to be bringing a child into this world right now.”
Dolly Parton says she and her late husband, Carl Dean, were ‘pretty independent’ because they didn’t have children (Instagram/Dolly Parton)
The “9 to 5” singer continued: “I always say God didn’t let me have children so that all kids could be mine.”
During a 2020 episode of Apple TV+’s The Oprah Conversation, Parton said she’s been able to prioritize her career because she’s not a mother.
“Since I had no kids, and my husband was pretty independent, I had freedom,” Parton said. “So I think a big part of my whole success is the fact that I was free to work.”
She specified that outside of her music, she’s also been able to operate her Imagination Library, which mails free books to children between the ages of one and five. The program has been running for more than 30 years.
“If I hadn’t had the freedom to work, I wouldn’t have done all the things I’ve done,” Parton added. “I wouldn’t be in a position to do all of the things I’m doing now.”
Parton thanked fans for their ‘prayers and sympathy’ after the death of her husband, Carl Dean (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
On Monday, Parton shared a post on X/Twitter to share that her husband, whom she married in 1966, had passed away that day in Nashville, at the age of 82.
“He will be laid to rest in a private ceremony with immediate family attending. He was survived by his siblings Sandra and Donnie,” the statement read. “The family has asked for privacy during this difficult time.”
The post also included a message from Parton: “Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”
Parton, who sang frequently and poignantly about heartbreak and infidelity, met her first and only husband at the age of 18, the same day she moved to Nashville. The pair married two years later on May 30, 1966, in Georgia.
“I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me),” Parton wrote of their first encounter outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat. “He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about.”
Dean inspired much of Parton’s work, most famously “Jolene,” one of her biggest hits, when he became the subject of a flirtatious bank teller’s attention.
She regaled her audience at Glastonbury with the story behind the song in 2014, when she performed in the Legends slot on the Pyramid Stage.
“Now, some of you may or may not know that this song was loosely based on a little bit of truth,” she told her fans. “I wrote that years ago when my husband [was] spending a little more time with Jolene than I thought he should be.”
As the crowd booed, she continued: “I got rid of that redhead woman in a hurry. I want you folks to know, though, that something good can come from anything. Had it not been for that woman, I would never have written ‘Jolene,’ and I wouldn’t have made all that money, so thank you, Jolene.”
