Dolly Parton got candid about the moment she realized she felt like she wanted to keep her relationship with her late husband, Carl Dean, out of the public eye.
“When I was early on, when I first got here, I won the song of the year and I won a BMI Award in 1966, that’s the year that we got married,” Parton, 79, shared on Khloé Kardashian’s “Khloé in Wonderland” podcast on Wednesday, July 9. “He rented a tuxedo, didn’t want to do it, I begged him to go.”
Parton went on to say that when they were leaving the house, Dean started taking off his tie and jacket and told her he didn’t want to go.
“He said, ‘Now I want you to do great, but don’t you ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going,’” she recalled. “And he never did. I knew right then that I’m just going to keep him private as best I can [and] never ask him to do nothing. And certainly he’s not going to volunteer.”
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The “Jolene” songstress noted that Dean, who died in March, was “very proud” of her success.
“We got along great because we didn’t have nothing to fight over like that,” she shared.
Even though Dean chose not to be in the spotlight with her, Parton still believed that they were the “perfect” match.
“We were so good for each other because he’s a total loner. But we could just be in the house all day and say two or three words, didn’t matter. Or we could talk all afternoon,” Parton told Kardashian, 41. “We were different people, he was not involved in the music business at all. … But he was a loner. He did not want a bunch of people around him except me.”
Parton shared that she “really believes that there are certain personalities that are great together,” adding that she and Dean were “great together” for 61 years.
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“We were just different, but we were so similar. Like we were perfect. … Just so many things we were compatible at,” she gushed. “We just got along great.”
Dean died in March at the age of 82 after a long illness.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together,” Parton wrote via Instagram at the time. “Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”
Since Dean’s death, Parton has struggled to write music about her grief.
“Several things I wanted to start, but I just can’t finish. I can’t do it,” she admitted on Wednesday. “I will later. … I’ve come up with so much wonderful, beautiful ideas, but I won’t finish it [now]. I can’t do it right now because I can’t afford the luxury of getting that emotional right now.”