Dolly Parton Shared the Intimate Details of Her ‘Open’ Marriage With Her Ultra-Private Husband

Dolly Parton, the rhinestone-clad powerhouse of country music, has a penchant for spinning yarns about her life, both in song and conversation. Her enduring marriage to Carl Thomas Dean, a man who prefers the quiet sanctuary of their Tennessee home over the glare of the spotlight, is no exception.

Dolly met Carl in Nashville’s Wishy Washy Laundromat back in 1964. She was fresh off the bus from East Tennessee, a bright-eyed 18-year-old with big dreams. He, on the other hand, was a local businessman, running his asphalt-laying company out of Nashville. It was a classic case of opposites attracting; the bubbly, outgoing starlet and the quiet, reserved businessman.

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“I’d never been in a laundromat before. I walked outside there was this good looking man that drove by the wishy-washy laundromat. And he pulled over to the side,” Parton explained in her new documentary for Channel 5, Dolly Parton: In Her Own Words, per DailyMail. “So we started talking and we married years later.”

Fast forward 57 years, and the couple have navigated the choppy waters of fame with a remarkable approach to marriage — by keeping theirs ultra private while still allowing each other some space to have fun. “Men are my weakness,” Parton once confessed, a revelation that might raise eyebrows in less secure relationships. But in the Parton-Dean marriage, it’s all part of the charm.

“Short, fat, bald or skinny — I’ve had crushes on some very unusual men,” she elaborated. This isn’t a confession of infidelity, mind you. “Carl knows I’ll always come home and I’m not having sex with these people — I’m just flirting and having fun.”

Fortunately, Parton’s husband doesn’t feel threatened by his wife’s playfulness. In fact, according to the country star, he’s just as guilty. “He’s not jealous and I’m not jealous of him. He knows I flirt. He flirts too,” she explained.

Still, Parton and Dean’s open marriage isn’t full of secrets or romantic partners. Dolly, ever the straight shooter, puts it all on the table: “Yes, it’s an open relationship, but not sexually and I would kill him if I thought he was doing that. He would shoot me too. At the end of the day we love each other madly.”

While the term “open relationship” might generally conjure images of romantic free-for-alls, Parton and Dean’s dynamic provides an intriguing counter-narrative. Their relationship, while seeming to nod at societal norms, is firmly grounded in a profound and steadfast commitment to one another.

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