Dolly Parton Heard Constant Rumors About Her Secret Marriages to 2 Country Stars
Dolly Parton’s marriage was happy and long lasting. She met her husband, Carl Dean, on her first day in Nashville, and they remained married for nearly 60 years. Despite this, she heard many rumors about her supposed relationships over the years. Parton said she heard a particularly large number of stories about her secret marriages to two country stars.
Dolly Parton heard a number of untrue rumors about her marriage
Parton married Dean in 1966, just before her career began to pick up steam. While she said their marriage was a happy one, rumors about her infidelity persisted for years. She said she saw her name linked to two country artists in particular.
“People have had me and Porter [Wagoner] married and me and Charley Pride married, and then me running with everybody in the business,” she told The Tennessean in 1974, per the book Dolly on Dolly. “For one thing, it’s not true, because I’m a better person than that. And for another thing, if I was gonna run with anybody, I wouldn’t dare run with anybody in the music business, because it’s like a family. I mean, that would be like running with your kinfolks or somebody.”
Parton denied carrying out affairs, but she knew it didn’t matter what she said. People would believe what they wanted to believe.
“It don’t make no difference anyway,” she said. “I don’t want to come out sounding self-righteous, but people are going to say and think what they please anyway. It don’t bother me so much anymore.”
She said her relationship with Porter Wagoner never became romantic
The rumors about Parton and Wagoner were particularly persistent, as they worked together for years. While she acknowledged that he might have feelings for her, she did not reciprocate them.
“Maybe he was in love with me,” she said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “But it was a love of its kind. It was not a love that could ever be shared, if he was.”
Dolly Parton’s marriage lasted nearly 60 years
Parton and Dean remained together until his death in 2025. Though they were very different, they fit together well.
“Carl was the person who gave my life meaning and a foundation,” she told Playgirl in 1981. “Somebody to make plans with, to give us both a reason to work, somebody to build a home with and talk with about bein’ old together and where we’re goin’. Somebody not to bug me, not to choke me; and for me not to choke him, because he needs his freedom as much as I need mine.”
Parton spoke about adjusting to life without him.
“I just try to go on, because I know I have to,” she told the Associated Press. “And he was ill for quite a while, and part of me was at peace that he was at peace and not suffering anymore. But that still doesn’t make up for the loss and the loneliness of it.”
She wrote the song “If You Hadn’t Been There” about him.
