Dolly Parton Says This Is How She & Husband Carl Dean Go Out in Public Without Being Recognized
Despite being married for about 60 years, the world has not seen much of Dolly Parton‘s husband, Carl Dean. The pair wed in 1966 after meeting outside of a Nashville laundromat, and while there are a few photos online of the couple’s early years, Parton has not shared a newer picture of her husband in decades. Unlike Parton, Dean prefers to stay home and out of the spotlight — an arrangement she has often said works for them.
How does Dean manage to stay out of the public eye while also being married to one of the most famous and recognizable celebrities in the country? For starters, he never attends red carpets or any other public events — according to Parton’s memoir, after attending one early career awards banquet with her, Dean said, “I’m happy for you. I want you to do what you want to do. But don’t ever ask me to go to another one of them damn things, because I ain’t going.” And he never has. He has also never spoken to the press.
But the couple never seem to even be spotted out and about in public.
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According to Parton, this is because they take precautions to avoid attention when they go out together: She said in 2019 that the pair would go grocery shopping in the middle of the night to avoid crowds. She added, “We’d go in the middle of the night to those places that are open 24 hours a day. You’d be surprised at how lucky I’d get with that. You see a few people, and I don’t mind — I love people — I just don’t want to slow up my shopping.”
Despite her busy schedule, Parton said she always makes sure that she is home for the holidays and gets to spend some quality time with Dean. She explained, “I’ve never missed Christmas. I try to book all my things beforehand [and] say, ‘Do not book me, certainly for the week of Christmas, ’cause I need to be home with my family.'”
This year, she added, “I’m going to visit family and friends in East Tennessee. And then I’ll be visiting Carl’s family some, and then we’ll just have all that food.”
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Parton added that she and Dean like to ride around in their RV, cook together and read whenever Parton gets a break from all of her work.
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Queens of Country
November 2019
Get your toes-tapping as we give a nod to the queens of classic country music.
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