Long-lasting Hollywood love stories are hard to come by. However, you’d be forgiven for not knowing that the ‘Jolene’ singer has been married to her husband Carl Dean since 1966.
Parton is one of the most iconic musicians of all time and is often pictured at A-list events and on red carpets, but Dean is seldom seen with her.
The 11-time Grammy winner rented a tuxedo and begged her husband to attend the BMI Awards when she was nominated for Song of the Year in 1967.
Dolly Parton and her husband have been together for 58 years (Instagram/@dollyparton)
During a chat on the Dumb Blonde podcast, the 78-year-old musician recalled: “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,’ and he never did.”
Parton wasn’t surprised by her newlywed husband’s decision at the time, because he was never interested in having the spotlight on him.
“He loves music, but he’s not the least bit interested in being in it,” she said. “And he told me that right up front.”
Their marriage has stood the test of time and the couple renewed their vows in 2016 at their Nashville home.
It sounds like Parton and Dean are complete opposites and not just because of their feelings about fame. “He’s quiet and I’m loud, and we’re funny… we have a lot of fun,” she added.
The couple tied the knot in 1966 (Instagram/@dollyparton)
“Anytime [there is] too much tension going on, either one of us can like, find a joke about it to really break the tension, where we don’t let it go so far,” she explained.
“We never fought back and forth.”
The pair met back in 1964 outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat in Nashville, Tennessee. Parton was 18 and Dean was 21. Sparks flew as Dean drove past in his pickup truck when he saw Parton outside and ‘hollered’ at her, she told The New York Times in 1976.
During Parton’s historic rise to fame, her husband supported her behind the scenes while maintaining a road-paving business.
They still manage to keep their spark burning decades later, as Parton revealed in 2022 that she still dresses up for her man at home.
“Every day, I put on some makeup and fix my hair because I think, ‘Well, the whole world, I’m out here and everybody else sees me all dressed up, and I’m not going to just kind of go home and just flop on him,’” she told E! News.
There you have it folks, romance isn’t dead!
