Dolly Parton Revealed the ‘Most Precious Thing in the World’ to Her
Dolly Parton has been famous for years, which has given her access to practically everything she could have ever wanted. She said that she gained the most precious thing in her life before stardom, though. Parton said that she considered her relationship with her husband sacred and that he was incredibly important to her.
Dolly Parton said her husband was incredibly valuable to her
Parton and her husband, Carl Dean, have been married since 1966. In their decades together, Dean has rarely been seen by the public, even as Parton grew increasingly visible. Parton said this dynamic worked well for them.
“He’s a real mystery person to the public. That’s good, though,” she said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “I mean, that’s fine with us, and fine with him. He loves me good, and my career bein’ separate from my marriage is perfectly natural for us. We like it that way. It’s too right and too natural and too comfortable and too secure for it to ever be anything else.”
Her relationship was a quiet, secure spot in her constantly moving life. She said it was sacred to her.
“[M]y marriage and our relationship are sacred things to me,” she said. “He’s just the most precious thing in the world. He’s the only thing that remains untarnished in this business.”
Dolly Parton said she rarely discusses her husband because he is sacred to her
While Parton publicly discusses certain elements of her relationship, she said she tries to keep most things private.
“I’ve known how to keep my husband private,” she told Today. “It’s just natural to me to protect the things and the people I love and to protect my own privacy.”
She believes that because her relationship is sacred to her, she should not bare it all for public consumption.
“There’s a part that belongs to God and to me. It’s a sacred place that just is mine and God’s, and I’ve known how to do that because I think God has directed that,” she said. “I pray that also that God will give me enough to share and enough to spare when it comes to my money but also to myself. Let me share everything I can but let me keep me.”
The couple renewed their vows after 50 years of marriage
Parton and Dean’s 1966 wedding was a quiet affair, with only her mother in attendance. Fifty years later, she decided to renew her vows in a grander fashion.
“How many people can say they’ve been married 50 years? We’ve made it this long, we need to do it again,” she told Rolling Stone. “Steve Summers designed my dress and he bought Carl a really beautiful suit, so we’re all ready. My dress is kind of off-white. I’ve always wanted a big beautiful dress, the whole thing. We’re doing it here in Nashville.”
The vow renewal gave her a chance to have the type of wedding she always wanted.
