Inside Dolly Parton’s Ultra-Private Romance With Husband Carl Dean

“He loves music,” Parton said of the 81-year-old, “but he’s not in the music business at all, so we have different things to talk about, his world and my world, and we work really well together. We have a lot of love and respect for each other, and I think the key to all of it—we both have a crazy, warped sense of humor, so we have a lot of fun.”

So Dean being absent from the public eye for more than half a century—unless you happened to catch him watching his wife perform at a county fair, his preferred kind of venue—has never been a sign of trouble in paradise (or Dollywood).

Quite the opposite, in fact.

“He’s always supporting me as long as I don’t try to drag him in on it,” Parton told People in 2019, explaining why we never see her spouse. “He’s always been my biggest fan behind the scenes.”

And Dean has been in her corner since day one, literally.

Keep reading for the whole story…