The Reason Why Dolly Parton & Carl Dean Never Had Children
Dolly Parton and her husband Carl Dean were married for nearly 59 years before his death on March 3, 2025. (Photo Credit: Dolly Parton)
Dolly Parton Was Married To Her Husband For Nearly 59 Years
Despite being married for almost 59 years, Dolly Parton and her husband, Carl Dean, never had any children.
Dolly arrived in Nashville at the age of 18 to chase a career in country music. Getting a boyfriend was the last thing on her mind, but that all changed when she met Carl at a laundromat on her first day in “Music City.”
The couple dated for two years before they married on May 30, 1966. Dolly just signed a record contract, and her label told her to hold off on getting married. They thought she would be more successful if she remained single. So Dolly and Carl eloped to Georgia in the hopes that no one in Nashville would learn about their wedding.
They said their vows in front of the preacher, his wife, a witness, and Dolly’s mother, Avie Lee. That simple ceremony resulted in a nearly 59-year marriage that lasted until Carl’s death on March 3, 2025.
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While Dolly eventually became one of the world’s most recognizable and beloved celebrities, Carl remained a man of mystery. He was rarely photographed and only ever attended one event with his famous wife.
Carl wasn’t even a fan of country music; he preferred to listen to bluegrass and hard rock instead.
While Dolly often acknowledged that she and Carl were complete opposites, she knew that’s what made them work so well as a couple. He got to enjoy his quiet life at home in Tennessee while she traveled the world. Then, she could always return to him and their home for some much-needed peace and normalcy.
Why Did Dolly Parton And Carl Dean Never Have Any Children?
Fans have often wondered why Dolly Parton and Carl Dean never had any children. Dolly has been incredibly open about the reasons why they never became parents.
Dolly once told The Guardian that she and Carl discussed having children when they first married. They even had a name picked out if they had a daughter.
“My husband and I, when we first got married, we thought about if we had kids, what would they look like?” she said. “Would they be tallâbecause he’s tall? Or would they be little squats like me? If we’d had a girl, she was gonna be called Carla…Anyway, we talked about it, and we dreamed it, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
But Dolly’s health made it difficult for her to conceive. She eventually got diagnosed with endometriosis, a condition where tissue grows outside of the uterus. It can also affect the ovaries and fallopian tubes and therefore impact fertility.
Parton’s condition was so severe she had to have a partial hysterectomy at the age of 36.
“Suddenly I was a middle-aged woman. I went through a dark time,” she wrote in her 2023 book Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones.
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Dolly couldn’t get pregnant after the operation. She believes she would have been a great mom, so much, in fact, that she would have given up her career for her kids.
“I would have been a great mother, I think,” she told The Guardian. “I would probably have given up everything else. Because I would’ve felt guilty about that, if I’d have left them [for work]. Everything would have changed. I probably wouldn’t have been a star.”
During a 2020 interview on Oprah Winfrey’s The Oprah Conversation Apple TV+ series, Dolly said that because she had no children, she could devote more time to her career.
“Since I had no kids, and my husband was pretty independent, I had freedom,” she said. “So I think a big part of my whole success is the fact that I was free to work.”
But Dolly still adores children, as she’s made clear through her work with her Imagination Library and her Dollywood theme park.
The singer, who has 11 siblings, has also been a devoted aunt to her many nieces and nephews. She also released a children’s music album, I Believe in You, in 2017. Listen to one of the album’s songs below.
“God has a plan for everything,” Dolly told TODAY in 2017. “I think it probably was his plan for me not to have kids so everybodyâs kids could be mine. And they are now.”
