Dolly Parton's ‘open’ marriage to Carl Dean: How they ‘kept the spark alive’ in enduring marriage

Dolly Parton announced on Monday that her husband, Carl Dean, has passed away. “Carl Dean, husband of Dolly Parton, passed away 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,” a spokesperson wrote on social media.

The Country music icon added, ‘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.' The family has asked for privacy during this difficult time.” Although the “Jolene” hitmaker’s romance with her husband remained ultra-private, Parton admitted in the past that their enduring marriage that had spanned decades was an “open” one.

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Inside Dolly Parton's open marriage to husband of nearly 60 years

The couple’s relationship blossomed in 1964 near a local laundromat. Two years later, they got married and remained together through all kinds of ups and downs. Dolly Parton once said, “Men are my weakness.” Yet her bond with her husband of nearly 60 years remained unbroken.

“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,” she said, per The Mirror US.

In her 2017 autobiography “Dolly on Dolly, Interviews and Encounters with Dolly Parton,” the Nashville queen detailed, “He's not jealous and I'm not jealous of him. He knows I flirt. He flirts too.” She further confirmed, “Yes, it's an open relationship, but not sexually and I would kill him if I thought he was doing that.”

Despite the existing playfulness, the pair shared deep trust. “He would shoot me too. At the end of the day we love each other madly,” the singer added.

The 2017 book also had Dolly confess to having an “affair of the heart” outside of her “open, long marriage,” which left her with a “broken heart.”

How she kept the spark alive: Play dress-up

Thereafter, during a 2022 interview with E! News, Parton shared what helped “keep things spicy” in their relationship. “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'. Nobody wants to make out with a slouch! It's important to me that I look as good as I can,” she said.

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Dolly Parton and Carl Dean didn't share any children despite initial plans

The Country music icon and her late husband never had any children of their own. She previously got candid on the matter with Billboard: “When my husband and I were dating, and then when we got married, we just assumed we would have kids. We weren't doing anything to stop it. In fact, we thought maybe we would. We even had names if we did, but it didn't turn out that way.”

As the couple remained childless, Dolly’s insight leaned more towards spirituality: “God has a plan for everything. I think it probably was his plan for me not to have kids so everybody's kids could be mine.”