Dolly Parton Said She Recently Realized Just How Much She ‘Sacrificed’ for Fame
Dolly Parton has had a close relationship with fame for most of her life. The singer and songwriter began pursuing a music career as a child, and her success continued to expand through her adulthood. Parton is nearing her 80th birthday, and said she has no plans to retire. Still, while reflecting on her life, she realized that she sacrificed a great deal for her career.
Dolly Parton said she realized she sacrificed a great deal for fame
Parton, who is currently 79, has been working on her music career for seven decades. She said that while reflecting on her life as she worked on her book Star of the Show: My Life on Stage, she realized that she has been in constant motion for as long as she can remember. She has had to sacrifice a great deal for the sake of her career.
“You know, I have just been going so fast my whole life,” she told People. “And I just start thinking, ‘How in the world did I even have a life? How did I even get it done?’ I really realized when I was putting this book together just how much I had sacrificed in my life.”
Parton has no regrets, though. She’s just glad that the only one impacted by her drive has been her.
“I never had children, so at least I didn’t have a guilty feeling,” she said. “I’m thankful that I got to see my dreams come true.”
She didn’t think it would be fair for her to have kids
Parton and her husband, Carl Dean, never had children. She admitted that she used to feel guilty about this decision.
“I always felt guilty and selfish if I said I didn’t want them,” she wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “So sometimes I would just say I couldn’t have them, and that lie made me feel even more guilty.”
Ultimately, though, she believes she would have felt more guilty if she’d had children. Her career takes her away from home for long stretches of time, and she’d have to make sacrifices if she had kids.
“I love kids, but it wouldn’t be fair to put children through the kind of life that I lead,” she told Playgirl in 1981, per the book Dolly on Dolly. “Carl doesn’t want children either. If he did, I would have them, I’m sure.”
Still, Parton played a major role in raising her younger siblings, nieces, and nephews.
Dolly Parton warned her husband that her fame would make their marriage different than others’
When Parton first moved to Nashville, she told herself she didn’t want a relationship, as it could get in the way of her career. Despite this, she met Dean on her first day in the city and they quickly fell in love. When he proposed, she warned him that her career would always come first.
“I explained to him exactly how I felt about my music — that it wasn’t something I did, it was me,” Parton said, per the book Dolly: The Biography by Alanna Nash. “I told him I had to do it, no matter what. And he knew that my music was what had brought me to Nashville in the first place and that I wasn’t going to let anyone or anything stand in my way. I told him he had to be willing to accept this and that I had to know in my heart he could live with it, or we’d end up hurting one another, and I couldn’t stand that. He said, ‘If that’s what you want and that’s what makes you happy, then that’s what I want you to have.’”
Though Dean was very private, Parton said he always supported her career.
