Dolly Parton’s husband, Carl Thomas Dean, has died at the age of 82.
The country music icon, 79, announced the death of her famously reclusive spouse on Monday, after nearly 60 years of marriage.
In an Instagram statement, the Jolene singer revealed that Carl passed away in Nashville on March 3rd.
In her heartbreaking tribute, Dolly reflected on the ‘many wonderful years’ the pair spent together as she expressed her deep love for Carl and thanked fans for their prayers.
‘Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy,’ Dolly wrote.
Carl is survived by his siblings, Sandra and Donnie. He will be laid to rest in a private ceremony attended by immediate family.
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Dolly Parton’s, 79, husband, Carl Thomas Dean, has died at the age of 82; he is pictured in 2019
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The country music icon announced the death of her famously reclusive spouse on Monday, after nearly 60 years of marriage
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In an Instagram statement, the legendary singer revealed that Carl passed away in Nashville on March 3rd, as she reflected on the ‘many wonderful years’ the pair spent together
The full statement read: ‘Carl Dean, husband of Dolly Parton, passed away on March 3rd in Nashville at the age of 82. He will be laid to rest in a private ceremony with immediate family attending. He was survived by his siblings Sandra and Donnie.’
‘The family has asked for privacy during this difficult time.’
The couple have been married since 1966.
In 2024, Dolly gave a rare glimpse into her marriage as she revealed the reason why her husband refused to attend events with her.
Speaking on an episode of Bunnie Xo’s Dumb Blonde Podcast, the star revealed that while her husband ‘loves’ music, he’s ‘not the least bit interested in being in it.’
Recalling a pivotal moment early in their marriage, Dolly revealed she once convinced Carl to attend an awards show in 1967 when she won BMI Song of the Year.
Despite the big win, ‘homebody’ Carl told her: ‘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, she added, he never did.
But throughout their decades together, the couple, who renewed their vows in 2016 at their Nashville home, have relied on their shared sense of humor to avoid conflict.
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‘Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy,’ Dolly wrote
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Carl is survived by his siblings, Sandra and Donnie. He will be laid to rest in a private ceremony attended by immediate family
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Before she soared to the top of the charts with hits like Jolene and 9 to 5, Dolly met Carl, who once ran a road-paving business in Nashville
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Carl has always stayed away from the spotlight and the couple were rarely seen together
Speaking fondly of her ‘hilarious’ husband, the singer — who is the godmother of singer-songwriter and actress Miley Cyrus — revealed ‘He’s quiet and I’m loud, and we’re funny…we have a lot of fun.’
She added: ‘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.’
In 2008, Parton told NPR that her 1973 hit Jolene was partly inspired by a local bank teller who used to flirt with her husband.
‘She got this terrible crush on my husband. And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying, “Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money,”‘ Dolly shared.
Years later, she told a crowd at the Glastonbury Festival of the song: ‘I wrote that years ago when my husband… was spending a little more time with Jolene than I thought he should be. I put a stop to that. I got rid of that redhead woman in a hurry.’
The couple first met at a laundromat in Nashville in 1964, when she was just 18 years old, and throughout the dizzy heights of fame, Carl has remained a constant and supportive figure for Dolly behind the scenes.
In 2023, she spoke about how they first met in her Channel 5 documentary, Dolly Parton: In Her Own Words.
‘When I first moved to Nashville in 1964 I was doing dirty laundry because I was in such a hurry to move to Nashville from my home in East Tennessee which was 200 miles away.’
‘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.’
‘So we started talking and we married two years later.’
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The couple got married in 1966, and renewed their vows in 2016 at their Nashville home
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The pair first met at a laundromat in Nashville in 1964, and throughout the dizzy heights of fame, Carl has remained a constant and supportive figure for Dolly behind the scenes
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Speaking fondly of her ‘hilarious’ husband last year, the singer revealed ‘He’s quiet and I’m loud, and we’re funny… we have a lot of fun’; seen January 2025
While Dolly’s fame grew, Carl, who once ran a road-paving business, remained out of the spotlight, content to support his wife from behind the scenes.
And despite his reluctance to join her in the public eye, Dolly has always made an effort to keep their romance alive.
In 2022, she revealed in an interview with E! News that she always dresses up for her husband.
‘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 said.
‘Nobody wants to make out with a slouch! It’s important to me that I look as good as I can. I think it kind of helps keep things spicy.’
In her 2017 book Dolly on Dolly, Interviews and Encounters with Dolly Parton, the star revealed that ‘men are my weakness’.
She said: ‘Men are my weakness. Short, fat, bald or skinny — I’ve had crushes on some very unusual men but Carl knows I’ll always come home and I’m not having sex with these people — I’m just flirting and having fun.’
‘He’s not jealous and I’m not jealous of him. He knows I flirt. He flirts too.’
She added: ‘Yes, it’s an open relationship, but not sexually and I would kill him if I thought he was doing that.’
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The star previously shared she enjoys dressing up for Carl in order to keep things ‘spicy’
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In 2024, Dolly revealed the reason why her husband refused to attend events with her, stating that while he ‘loves’ music, he’s ‘not the least bit interested in being in it’
‘He would shoot me too. At the end of the day we love each other madly.’
Speaking on Zoe Ball’s BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show in 2023, Dolly was clear as to why her marriage to Carl has endured.
‘I think so much of it is the fact that we are honest and open and we have a warped sense of humor!’
‘He is crazy, he is so funny and clever. And I have a great sense of humor from both sides of my family so I think the humor has always been good.’
She continued by saying a mutual ‘love and respect’ for one another has always been the bedrock of their romance.
‘There’s the respect and the love and I just like him!’
‘You know, I would have liked him if he wasn’t my husband, if he was somebody else’s husband I say, “You know that Carl Dean, ain’t he funny? Ain’t he a good guy?”, so think it’s just that mutual respect and we just like each other.’
While Dolly has joked that Carl has only seen her perform once, she told Entertainment Tonight about a sweet conversation she had with her husband.
‘He said, “I didn’t choose this world, I chose you, and you chose that world. But we can keep our lives separate and together.” And we do and we have.’
In 2011 Dolly told the Toronto Sun: ‘We’re really very proud of our marriage. It’s the first for both of us. And the last.’
While the pair have never had children, the musician insisted she has ‘not missed’ having children.
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In 2008, Parton told NPR that her 1973 hit Jolene was partly inspired by a local bank teller who used to flirt with Carl; Dolly pictured performing in 2023
She admitted her career would have been put on the back-burner if she’d started a family and that little ones was not a ‘burning’ desire for her.
She told Saga Magazine: ‘I haven’t missed it like I thought I might. When you’re a young couple, you think you’re going to have kids, but it just wasn’t one of those burning things for me. I had my career and my music and I was traveling.’
‘If I’d had kids, I’d have stayed at home with them. I’m sure and worried myself to death about them.’
‘I always say God didn’t let me have children so that all kids could be mine.’
