Dolly Parton On Marriage to Carl Thomas Dean: ‘Find You A Partner Who Will Support You’
By Movieguide® Staff
Country music icon and Movieguide® Grace Prize® winner Dolly Parton recently shared a post on Instagram that featured her husband, Carl Thomas Dean.
The couple married in 1966 but have notably kept their relationship separate from the stage and Parton’s time in the spotlight.
However, Parton recently shared a picture of Dean with a photoshopped shirt advertising her “Vintage College Tee.”
“Find you a partner who will support you like my Carl Dean does!” her caption read.
After 55 years of marriage, Parton said that they still make time to go out on dates.
“We still have our little times, like in the springtime when the first daffodils come out,” Parton told People. “Even there’s still some snow around it, my husband always brings me a bouquet. And he’ll usually write me a little poem. Which to me, that’s priceless. That’s like a date in itself.”
“I’ll cook the stuff that I know we love,” she added. “And I pack it up in a picnic basket. And then we’ll go find some riverbank somewhere with our little camper, park, have a picnic. … We just do our little things like that.
“Or I’ll do a candlelight dinner,” she continued. “We don’t make an issue of it. It’s like certain days, you feel a certain way. And I’ll say, ‘I’m going to surprise him. And we’re going to have real cloth napkins and real crystal. I’m going to put the real china out instead of the paper plates we usually eat on because we don’t want to have to wash dishes.'”
Parton said that Dean often says that he does not want any part of the spotlight, which has led to rumors from the media that he does not exist.
“A lot of people have thought that through the years because he does not want to be in the spotlight at all,” Parton told ET. “It’s just not who he is. He’s like, a quiet, reserved person and he figured if he ever got out there in that, he’d never get a minute’s peace and he’s right about that.”
“I’ve always respected and appreciated that in him and I’ve always tried to keep him out of the limelight as much as I can,” she continued. “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.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
Country music legend Dolly Parton gave fellow singer Gabby Barrett marriage advice as Barnett approached on her one-year anniversary.
The two singers sat down for a video interview, that was shared with PEOPLE exclusively.
“My husband and I always had a great friendship. We’re both funny, and we both have a great and warped sense of humor, so we’ve always had a good time,” Parton said. “But when I’m home, I love that. We don’t do the same thing, so it gives us different stuff to talk about. He doesn’t get involved in my business, and I don’t in his, so we have our own little world that we create for ourselves.”