<p id=”par-1_55″><a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/dolly-parton/”>Dolly Parton</a> and Porter Wagoner spent nearly a decade recording <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/music/”>songs</a> and performing together. The pair had a close, intense relationship, but Parton said things were never physical between them. Rumors about their relationship spread far and wide, though. Parton said there was little truth to them, but she could understand why people believed them.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-dolly-parton-shared-how-she-felt-about-people-calling-porter-wagoner-her-sugar-daddy”>Dolly Parton shared how she felt about people calling Porter Wagoner her sugar daddy</h2>
<p id=”par-2_38″>There were many rumors about Parton and Wagoner’s relationship. Some speculated that they were <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-parton-admitted-tempted-men-husband.html/”>having an affair</a>, and others claimed she was <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/porter-wagoner-said-dolly-parton-famous-things-way.html/”>relying on him for money</a>. Parton said this wasn’t true, but understood why people thought so.</p>
<p id=”par-3_67″>“Naturally people thought Porter was my sugar daddy,” Parton said in 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. “But why wouldn’t they? I mean, if there’s no mystery about an artist . . . In fact, it’s real rare for me to even tell this much. Cause usually I’ll just say, ‘Well, you know, could be. Just one of them things.’ But people often thought that.”</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-husband-5.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”A black and white picture of Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner sitting together.” class=”wp-image-3789013″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<p id=”par-4_16″>She said that she rarely pushed back against the rumors because it wasn’t in her personality. </p>
<p id=”par-5_46″>“Even people in the business. Even people I’d known for years,” she said. “Because I just wasn’t the kind to go up and preach a sermon. People only believe what they want to anyway. No matter what I would say, they’d still have their own opinion.”</p>
<p id=”par-6_15″>Parton explained that Wagoner bought her gifts, but this didn’t make him her “sugar daddy.”</p>
<p id=”par-7_55″>“But he was not my sugar daddy, even though he was always buyin’ me gifts,” she said. “He just happened to get his gifts to me publicized. He often got gifts from me, but it was a personal thing with me, not a publicity thing. Like I say, it was a relationship of a kind.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-dolly-parton-said-she-never-had-an-affair-with-porter-wagoner”>Dolly Parton said she never had an affair with Porter Wagoner</h2>
<p id=”par-8_28″>Parton denied she and Wagoner ever crossed a line. She said that it would have been impossible to keep a secret like that <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-parton-pretty-protective-husband-carl-dean.html/”>from her husband</a> for long. </p>
<p id=”par-9_38″>“I have been married for a long time,” she said, “and I figure that if there had been anything between me and Porter my husband would have been the first to know it, because you cannot deceive people.”</p>
<p id=”par-10_17″>She felt secure in her knowledge that her husband knew the truth of her dynamic with Wagoner.</p>
<p id=”par-11_65″>“You know yourself you couldn’t live with a person and love em and not know if there was somethin’ else, somebody else that was takin’ away from that,” she said, adding, “You can’t fake a feelin’. You can for awhile, but you couldn’t for seven years, you know. Like I say, it was straight between my husband and me. We always knew. Porter always knew.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-a-friend-believed-wagoner-played-up-the-affair-rumors”>A friend believed Wagoner played up the affair rumors</h2>
<p id=”par-12_20″>Parton didn’t push back forcefully against the rumors. Those who knew both her and Wagoner said he fully embraced them. </p>
<p id=”par-13_54″>“Actually, I think that love affair was more on his thinking and desire than hers,” a studio musician who worked with them said. “Naturally, she’s gonna let the gossip go to the effect that it will help her, but when it comes to hurting her, or her stepping out of line, she backs up.”</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-Porter-Wagoner-1.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”A black and white picture of Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner singing into a microphone. Wagoner plays a guitar.” class=”wp-image-3789011″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
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<p id=”par-14_14″>Wagoner adopted a viewpoint that Parton <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-parton-thinks-rumors-dated-miley-cyrus-father-billy-ray.html/”>has also embraced</a>: no press is bad press. </p>
<p id=”par-15_54″>“A lot of that was his talk, his wants and wishes,” the musician said. “He wouldn’t indicate there was something going on, and as matter of fact, he always said there wasn’t. But he always kinda left the door open by laughin’. He just thought, ‘When you’re hot, you’re hot.’ That was his idea.”</p>