<p id=”par-1_57″><a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/dolly-parton/”>Dolly Parton</a> and her late husband, Carl Dean, were <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/celebrity-relationships/?swcfpc=1″>married</a> for six decades. Before she met him, though, she admitted she didn’t have plans to marry. Parton grew up <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/inside-dolly-parton-relationship-siblings.html/”>with 11 siblings</a> and had to help raise her younger brothers and sisters while she was still a child herself. She said this turned her away from domesticity. </p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-dolly-parton-said-she-didn-t-want-to-get-married-because-of-her-upbringing”>Dolly Parton said she didn’t want to get married because of her upbringing</h2>
<p id=”par-2_27″>Parton spent much of her childhood helping her mother <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/dolly-parton-supposed-keep-books-house-growing.html/”>around the house</a>. Because of this, she had little interest in doing the same thing as an adult.</p>
<p id=”par-3_42″>“I hadn’t intended to marry,” she said, per the book <em><a href=”https://www.amazon.com/Dolly-Alanna-Nash/dp/0891695230″ target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Dolly: The Biography</a></em> by Alanna Nash. “All I had ever known was housework and kids and workin’ in the fields. But I didn’t want to be domestic; I wanted to be free.”</p>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Dolly-Parton-young-1.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”A black and white picture of Dolly Parton wearing a collared shirt.” class=”wp-image-3789259″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Dolly Parton | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<p id=”par-4_19″>Her goal was to make it as a singer, and she’d do whatever it took to achieve her dreams.</p>
<p id=”par-5_39″>“I had my songs to sing, I had an ambition, and it burned inside me,” she said. “It was something I knew would take me out of the mountains. I knew I could see worlds beyond the Smoky Mountains.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-this-changed-when-she-met-her-future-husband”>This changed when she met her future husband</h2>
<p id=”par-6_22″>On Parton’s first day in Nashville, her plans changed. She <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/dolly-parton-revealed-intense-opinion-formed-husband-day-met.html/”>met her future husband</a> outside a laundromat and felt an immediate connection.</p>
<p id=”par-7_48″>“I hadn’t intended to find anybody, but you know how love goes, and I’ve always felt God has had His hand in my life,” she said. “The day I met Carl, I felt I found something I’d looked for all my life. And he felt the same way.”</p>
<p id=”par-8_20″>Parton told Dean that she <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/dolly-parton-warned-husband-kind-marriage-people.html/”>wouldn’t stop pursuing music</a> after their marriage. He understood and supported her through her career. </p>
<p id=”par-9_75″>“I guess we really both have two first loves, our job and each other,” she said. “We have a great understanding. And I believed it could happen. I thought you were supposed to be happy when you married, and I am. It’s a good marriage. It’s solid, and it’s firm. We’ve both only been married once, and that’s to each other. But it’ll be the only time I’m ever married, unless my husband should die.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-dolly-parton-and-carl-dean-married-in-secret”>Dolly Parton and Carl Dean married in secret</h2>
<p id=”par-10_50″>Two years after meeting, Parton and Dean married <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/the-real-reason-dolly-parton-eloped-with-carl-dean-instead-of-dream-wedding.html/”>in a secret ceremony</a>. Her record label believed marriage might be bad for her image, so they had to drive across state lines to wed. Dr. L. Don Duvall married them, and recalled how the young couple behaved ahead of the wedding. </p>
<p id=”par-11_41″>“The young man was rather nervous,” he said. “I remember he wanted to take some pictures and went down to the drugstore and got some film. But I think he got the wrong size, or something, and had to go back.”</p>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-2″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Dolly-Parton-1.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”A black and white picture of Dolly Parton sitting in front of a fence.” class=”wp-image-3785044″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Dolly Parton | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
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<p id=”par-12_14″>Years after he married the young couple, Duvall wrote to Parton to check in.</p>
<p id=”par-13_18″>“She said, ‘I love him more now than I did then,’” he recalled. “‘He’s my best friend, too.’”</p>