Dolly Parton’s Husband: About Carl Thomas Dean & Their Marriage Before His Death

Dolly Parton has been a staple of the song business for just about 60 years upon getting her large smash within the 1960s. Her profession has made her a rustic icon, with a large number of hits together with songs like “Jolene” and “9 to 5,” and she or he remains to be a hugely influential singer to these days. Almost so long as she’s been making song, she used to be additionally married to overdue retired businessman Carl Thomas Dean. The pair married in 1966, and their marriage lasted till Carl’s dying in March 2025.

She reminisced about their time in combination in a May 2, 2025, interview with Today, announcing, “Oh, you know what, I get very emotional when people bring it up.” She added, “But we were together 60 years. I’ve loved him since I was 18 years old.”

Find out extra about Dolly’s husband Carl Dean, and what they’ve stated about their dating.

Do Dolly Parton & Carl Dean Have Kids?

Dolly and Carl don’t have any youngsters, however with just about 60 years of marriage, it crossed their thoughts. Dolly published that she’d “dreamed” of getting youngsters, nevertheless it wasn’t “meant to be” in a 2014 interview with The Guardian. “My husband and I, when we first got married, we thought about if we had kids, what would they look like? Would they be tall – because he’s tall? Or would they be little squats like me? If we’d had a girl, she was gonna be called Carla,” she stated. “I would have been a great mother, I think. I would probably have given up everything else. Because I would’ve felt guilty about that, if I’d have left them [to work, to tour]. Everything would have changed. I probably wouldn’t have been a star.”

Dolly lately admitted that she by no means felt the pull in opposition to motherhood in a 2023 interview with Saga Exceptional. “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 stated. “If I’d had kids, I’d have stayed home with them, I’m sure, and worried myself to death about them. With everything that’s going on, I’d hate to be bringing a child into this world right now.”

That pressure to paintings and achieve success in a difficult business like nation song has been a significant component in why Dolly doesn’t truly be apologetic about now not having youngsters of her personal. “I believe that I know what I’m supposed to, but you’ve got to make the sacrifice. Since I had no kids, and my husband was pretty independent, I had freedom. I think a big part of my whole success is the fact that I was free to work, and I didn’t have children, because I believe that God didn’t mean for me to have kids so everybody’s kids could be mine, so I could do things, like the Imagination Library,” Dolly informed Oprah Winfrey in a 2020 interview, by means of Today.

How Did Dolly Parton & Carl Dean Meet?

Dolly published that Carl had referred to as out to her as she used to be doing laundry in a 2014 interview with The Guardian. “I was walking down the street to the laundromat, and he stopped me,” she stated. “He said, ‘Hey, you’re going to get sunburned out here!’ Well, he had to say something.”

Why Was Carl Dean So Private?

While Dolly is in an instant recognizable to with reference to somebody, Carl saved out of the highlight for a lot of his spouse’s profession. Dolly spoke about why her husband values his privateness in a 2020 interview with ET. “He’s like, a quiet, reserved person and he figured if he ever got out there in that, he’d never get a minute’s peace and he’s right about that,” she defined, noting that she’s at all times attempted to “keep him out of the limelight,” as he desires. “He said, ‘I didn’t choose this world, I chose you, and you chose that world. But we can keep our lives separate and together.’ And we do and we have. We’ve been together 56 years, married 54.” Dolly even joked that the pair playfully say that her busy agenda is a part of why their dating has lasted goodbye.

The “Jolene” singer additionally published the explanation why Carl wouldn’t sign up for her on purple carpets in a What Would Dolly Do? Radio broadcast in November 2023. “Carl has never been in the limelight and all, never wanted to be in it. He don’t like it,” she stated, by means of 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.”

Dolly Parton Has Said That Carl Dean Supported Her

Other than making their lifestyles in combination paintings between Dolly’s larger-than-life personality and Carl’s need for privateness, Dolly stated that the pair get alongside smartly. When talking about her tumultous dating with overdue musician Porter Wagoner in a 2021 interview with W, Dolly published that her dating with Carl used to be very other from the partnership she had with Porter. “My husband and I don’t argue,” she stated. “But Porter and I did nothing but fight. It was a love-hate relationship.”

Dolly additionally took to her Instagram in November 2021 to percentage a photograph of the rarely-seen Carl, and she or he celebrated his assist. The picture used to be an older image of the pair, and Carl used to be dressed in a t-shirt along with his spouse’s face on it. “Find you a partner who will support you like my Carl Dean does!” Dolly captioned the submit.

Why Didn’t Dolly Parton Take Carl Dean’s Last Name?

While many lovers know Dolly by way of her maiden title, she published that she took her husband’s closing title however plays along with her personal. “My passport is Dolly Parton Dean. I sign a lot of my contracts Dean. I didn’t change names [publicly] because I already had a record deal. It made no sense. He never asked me to,” she informed The Guardian in 2014. “At home, to me, I’m Dolly Dean. But then I’m also Dolly Parton. I’m Dolly Parton Dean. I’m myself… If I had chosen the name Dolly Dean… I’d have been Double D. Again.”

Dolly additionally published that whilst there have lengthy been rumors that she’s cheated on Carl, she’s by no means been untrue. In reality, Carl has poked amusing on the tabloid headlines over time. She stated that he used their then pet-dog, named Popeye, to make a comic story about rumors that she had an affair with Burt Reynolds. “After there was something written about an affair with Burt Reynolds, Carl came in with this picture of Popeye that he’d got someone to make up and he said, ‘Here’s yours and Burt’s baby,’” she informed Saga Exceptional. “He’s always treated these things tongue-in-cheek and he’ll say, ‘Hell, I’d feel bad for any man that didn’t fall in love with her.’”

Dolly Parton’s Husband Carl Dean’s Cause of Death

Dolly introduced March 2025 that her husband had died, and a reason for dying used to be now not right away disclosed. However, in step with TMZ, Carl used to be prior to now recognized with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2019.