Dolly Parton reveals how she is grieving following death of husband Carl Dean after 59 year marriage

Dolly Parton has revealed how she is navigating the grieving process following the death of her beloved husband Carl Thomas Dean aged 82.

The iconic singer, 79, who wed Dean in 1966, announced he had died in Nashville on March 3 in a heartbreaking Instagram statement this week.

On Thursday, Parton took to social media to thank loved ones and fans for their support as she adjusts to life without her husband of 59 years.

She wrote: ‘This is a love note to family, friends and fans. Thank you for all the messages, cards and flowers that you’ve sent to pay your respects for the loss of my beloved husband Carl.

‘I can’t reach out personally to each of you but just know it has meant the world to me.

‘He is in God’s arms now and I am okay with that.  

She signed off with a nod to her classic love song, by writing: ‘I will always love you.’

In her heartbreaking tribute Monday, Dolly reflected on the ‘many wonderful years’ the pair spent together as she expressed her deep love for Carl and thanked fans for their prayers. 

‘Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy,’ Dolly wrote. 

Carl is survived by his siblings, Sandra and Donnie. He will be laid to rest in a private ceremony attended by immediate family.

The full statement read: ‘Carl Dean, husband of Dolly Parton, passed away on March 3rd in Nashville at the age of 82. He will be laid to rest in a private ceremony with immediate family attending. He was survived by his siblings Sandra and Donnie.’

‘The family has asked for privacy during this difficult time.’ 

In 2024, Dolly gave a rare glimpse into her marriage as she revealed the reason why her husband refused to attend events with her.

Speaking on an episode of Bunnie Xo’s Dumb Blonde Podcast, the star revealed that while her husband ‘loves’ music, he’s ‘not the least bit interested in being in it.’

Recalling a pivotal moment early in their marriage, Dolly revealed she once convinced Carl to attend an awards show in 1967 when she won BMI Song of the Year.

Despite the big win, ‘homebody’ Carl told her: ‘I wish you the best, but don’t ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going.’

And, she added, he never did.

But throughout their decades together, the couple, who renewed their vows in 2016 at their Nashville home, have relied on their shared sense of humor to avoid conflict.

Speaking fondly of her ‘hilarious’ husband, the singer — who is the godmother of singer-songwriter and actress Miley Cyrus — revealed ‘He’s quiet and I’m loud, and we’re funny…we have a lot of fun.’

She added: ‘Anytime [there is] too much tension going on, either one of us can like, find a joke about it to really break the tension, where we don’t let it go so far,’ she explained.

‘We never fought back and forth.’

In 2008, Parton told NPR that her 1973 hit Jolene was partly inspired by a local bank teller who used to flirt with her husband.

‘She got this terrible crush on my husband. And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying, “Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money,”‘ Dolly shared.

Years later, she told a crowd at the Glastonbury Festival of the song: ‘I wrote that years ago when my husband… was spending a little more time with Jolene than I thought he should be. I put a stop to that. I got rid of that redhead woman in a hurry.’

The couple first met at a laundromat in Nashville in 1964, when she was just 18 years old, and throughout the dizzy heights of fame, Carl has remained a constant and supportive figure for Dolly behind the scenes.

In 2023, she spoke about how they first met in her Channel 5 documentary, Dolly Parton: In Her Own Words.

‘When I first moved to Nashville in 1964 I was doing dirty laundry because I was in such a hurry to move to Nashville from my home in East Tennessee which was 200 miles away.’

‘I’d never been in a laundromat before. I walked outside there was this good looking man that drove by the wishy-washy laundromat. And he pulled over to the side.’

‘So we started talking and we married two years later.’

While Dolly’s fame grew, Carl, who once ran a road-paving business, remained out of the spotlight, content to support his wife from behind the scenes.

And despite his reluctance to join her in the public eye, Dolly has always made an effort to keep their romance alive.

In 2022, she revealed in an interview with E! News that she always dresses up for her husband.

‘Every day, I put on some makeup and fix my hair because I think, “Well, the whole world, I’m out here and everybody else sees me all dressed up, and I’m not going to just kind of go home and just flop on him”,’ she said.

‘Nobody wants to make out with a slouch! It’s important to me that I look as good as I can. I think it kind of helps keep things spicy.’

In her 2017 book Dolly on Dolly, Interviews and Encounters with Dolly Parton, the star revealed that ‘men are my weakness’.

She said: ‘Men are my weakness. Short, fat, bald or skinny — I’ve had crushes on some very unusual men but Carl knows I’ll always come home and I’m not having sex with these people — I’m just flirting and having fun.’

‘He’s not jealous and I’m not jealous of him. He knows I flirt. He flirts too.’

She added: ‘Yes, it’s an open relationship, but not sexually and I would kill him if I thought he was doing that.’

‘He would shoot me too. At the end of the day we love each other madly.’

Speaking on Zoe Ball’s BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show in 2023, Dolly was clear as to why her marriage to Carl has endured.

‘I think so much of it is the fact that we are honest and open and we have a warped sense of humor!’

‘He is crazy, he is so funny and clever. And I have a great sense of humor from both sides of my family so I think the humor has always been good.’

She continued by saying a mutual ‘love and respect’ for one another has always been the bedrock of their romance.

‘There’s the respect and the love and I just like him!’

‘You know, I would have liked him if he wasn’t my husband, if he was somebody else’s husband I say, “You know that Carl Dean, ain’t he funny? Ain’t he a good guy?”, so think it’s just that mutual respect and we just like each other.’

While Dolly has joked that Carl has only seen her perform once, she told Entertainment Tonight about a sweet conversation she had with her husband.

‘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.’

In 2011 Dolly told the Toronto Sun: ‘We’re really very proud of our marriage. It’s the first for both of us. And the last.’

While the pair have never had children, the musician insisted she has ‘not missed’ having children.

She admitted her career would have been put on the back-burner if she’d started a family and that little ones was not a ‘burning’ desire for her.

She told Saga Magazine: ‘I haven’t missed it like I thought I might. When you’re a young couple, you think you’re going to have kids, but it just wasn’t one of those burning things for me. I had my career and my music and I was traveling.’

‘If I’d had kids, I’d have stayed at home with them. I’m sure and worried myself to death about them.’

‘I always say God didn’t let me have children so that all kids could be mine.’