Dolly Parton, Husband Carl Dean's Relationship Timeline

Her best-kept secret. Dolly Parton and her husband, Carl Dean, have been married for greater than 50 years, however they’re not often seen collectively — and that’s simply the way in which they prefer it.

The nation icon first met her future partner when she moved to Nashville in 1964 to begin her music profession. They tied the knot inside two years of assembly one another, however as Parton’s star rose, Dean stored to himself. Eventually, followers began to surprise if the “Jolene” singer’s husband even existed.

“He just don’t have any desire to be in show business,” the Tennessee native advised Playboy in October 1978. “He don’t want to have his picture in the paper. He don’t want to go out to the supermarket and have people say, ‘That’s Dolly Parton’s husband.’”

Though the Grammy winner — the fourth of 12 kids — grew up in an enormous household, she and Dean by no means had any youngsters of their very own. Parton, nevertheless, is thought for her Imagination Library charity, which has despatched greater than 100 million free books to younger kids since she based it in 1995.

“God has a plan for everything,” the 9 to five actress defined throughout an October 2017 interview with the Today present. “I think it probably was his plan for me not to have kids so everybody’s kids could be mine. And they are now.”

To hear Parton inform it, she and Dean have nonetheless managed to have loads of enjoyable as a twosome over time. “We take off in our camper or go to our lake house,” the music celebrity wrote in her 1994 memoir, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “We might go on a picnic somewhere, and then decide to stay overnight. Then we’ll go to a ‘drive up to your room’ motel.”

In May 2016, the couple celebrated their fiftieth wedding ceremony anniversary, and Dean launched a uncommon assertion about his well-known spouse. “My first thought was, ‘I’m gonna marry that girl,’” he recalled of his first encounter with Parton. “My second thought was, ‘Lord, she’s good-lookin.’ And that was the day my life began. I wouldn’t trade the last 50 years for nothing on this earth.”

The duo additionally commemorated the event by renewing their vows in a non-public ceremony in Nashville. “If I had it to do all over, I’d do it all over again, and we did,” Parton mentioned on the time. “I’m dragging him kicking and screaming into the next 50 years. Wish us luck.”