Dolly Parton. Photo:
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Dolly Parton shared a rare look into her decades-long romance with husband Carl Dean just months before his death at age 82.
Parton announced that Dean died in Nashville on Monday, March 3. “Carl and I spent many wonderful years together,” said Parton, 79, in an Instagram statement. “Words can’t do justice the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”
Though Parton was very much in the spotlight, Dean shied away from public attention and the pair kept their relationship private.
Late last year, though, Parton opened up in an episode of Bunnie Xo’s podcast Dumb Blonde about their nearly 60-year marriage, highlighting the pair’s “love” and “respect” for one another.
“He’s quiet and I’m loud, and we’re funny,” Parton said in the December 2024 episode. “Oh, he’s hilarious. And I think one of the things that’s made it last so long through the years is that we love each other [and] we respect each other, but we have a lot of fun.”
Parton and Dean met in Nashville in 1964, and were married in Ringgold, Ga., in 1966.
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Dolly Parton and Carl Dean. Courtesy of Dolly Parton
In the time since, humor became a huge part of making their marriage last, Parton said last year.
“Anytime [there’s] 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,” Parton said during the podcast. “We never fought back and forth. And I’m glad now that we never did, because once you start that, that becomes a lifetime thing. I’ve seen it with so many people, and I thought, ‘I ain’t ever starting that.’ “
She continued, “I couldn’t bear to think that he’d say something I couldn’t take . . . because I’m a very sensitive person toward other people and myself.”
Parton also mentioned Dean in a PEOPLE interview that same month, saying her “last perfect day” was one spent with him. “On my last perfect day, well, I had a day off and I got to spend that whole day with my husband [Carl Thomas Dean]. I’ve worked so much that we don’t often have all the long, full days that we used to have when life was not as complicated,” Parton told PEOPLE. “Anytime I have some time off, that’s always a good day for me and for him, for us to have time off.”
Dean will be laid to rest in a private ceremony, Parton said on Instagram, with only “immediate family attending.” She also noted that he is survived by his siblings Sandra and Donnie
