Burt Reynolds Accused Dolly Parton of ‘Destroying the Magic’ of Their Relationship

Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds starred in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. While Parton did not enjoy her time on set, she did like her co-star. She said that she and Reynolds were both at low points in their lives, and they bonded over this. Still, Parton said Reynolds wasn’t always happy with her. She once made a joke about him to the press. When he heard about it, he told her that she was ruining the appearance of their relationship.

Burt Reynolds didn’t appreciate a joke Dolly Parton told

When Parton acted or sang with a man, rumors often swirled that they were romantically involved. This was no different with Reynolds. When asked if she was having an affair with him, Parton scoffed.

“There were the inevitable rumors that Burt and I were romantically involved, and one day, in an interview, somebody asked me if it was true,” Parton wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “‘Shoot, no!’ I said, ‘Burt and I are too much alike to be involved. We both wear wigs and high heels, and we both have a roll around the middle.'”

Reynolds wasn’t happy when he heard about this. He wasn’t mad that Parton poked fun at his appearance but that she destroyed any intrigue that might have come from affair rumors.

“Well, Burt got wind of this quote and proceeded to give me a few of his own,” Parton wrote, “‘You’re destroying the magic,’ he said to me. ‘How are people going to think of us as an item for the sake of this movie if we go around bad-mouthing each other?’ Well, I hadn’t thought of it as bad-mouthing, and I told him so. I was just trying to make a joke.”

Still, it seems that she took his words to heart. In other interviews, Parton said that her relationship with Reynolds was “sweeter than a love affair,” (via the book Dolly on Dolly).

Dolly Parton said Burt Reynolds was always kind to her on the set of ‘The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas’

While her comment may have frustrated him, Parton said that Reynolds was typically very kind to her.

“Burt was always good to me,” she wrote. “He took me to his dinner theater in Jupiter, Florida, and he had a fabulous painting done for me that now hangs over the fireplace in my music room. He has also been a doll about helping me out at Dollywood.”

Her joke also apparently grew on him. Parton said that she later heard him say the same thing.

“I know that Burt is a good sport, and looking back on it, I’m sure he was just a little extra sensitive at the time,” she wrote. “He must have gotten over it because a year or so later on a talk show I heard him use the same joke.”

She apologized to him for something that happened on set

While Parton considered Reynolds a friend on and off the set of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, she felt the need to apologize to him after the shoot. During one scene, he had to lift her up, which she said was a challenge for him.

“The cameras rolled, Burt picked me up, and I could hear him groan,” she wrote. “I was a real porker at the time, probably the heaviest I have ever been. Naturally, being the movies, they had to shoot the scene a few times, and each time Burt groaned a little louder.”

He ended up having surgery for a double hernia after filming wrapped. Parton jokingly asked for his forgiveness.

“The week after the shooting ended, Burt was checked into a hospital to undergo a double hernia operation,” she wrote. “I am told he had been having problems prior to that, but I still couldn’t help feeling a little responsible. So if anybody ever asks me if I broke Burt Reynolds’s heart, I have to say honestly that the damage was a little further south. Forgive me, Burt. I hope they’re still working.”