Dolly Parton Said Her Husband Has Always Carried ‘a Little Torch’ for Jane Fonda
Dolly Parton and her husband, Carl Dean, have been married for decades, but that hasn’t stopped either of them from having crushes. For years, rumors have swirled about Parton’s alleged affairs, and she wrote “Jolene” about an interaction her husband had with a bank teller. Parton revealed that her husband has always harbored a crush on one of her former co-stars.
Dolly Parton shared why her husband has always had a crush on Jane Fonda
While Parton was shooting Nine to Five, she and Fonda spent time discussing men they found attractive. As they spoke, Fonda pointed out a man she found good looking. Parton could hardly keep from laughing when she saw who Fonda had pointed out.
“I was laughing my butt off inside, but biting my lip. The man was my husband, Carl,” Parton wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business, adding, “He is very handsome, a tall Marlboro-man kind of guy, and he looked especially good that day. He had mentioned to me that he might come by the set. He made out like it was to visit me, but I knew he had had a crush on Jane since he saw her in Barefoot in the Park many years earlier. I knew that he just wanted to see her. He didn’t necessarily want to meet her, because he doesn’t like to bother anybody.”
Fonda began flirting with him and eventually asked how Parton knew him.
“‘Oh, we’ve just been married since nineteen sixty-six,’ I said, trying to be as cool as I could,” Parton wrote. “Jane nearly died laughing from embarrassment. Carl, of course, was flattered. He got to talk to Jane. He still carries a little torch for her to this day.”
Dolly Parton’s husband gushed about her to Jane Fonda
Though Dean was thrilled to have the opportunity to talk with Fonda, he also spoke about his wife with her.
“That day on the set, after talking to Carl, she came over to me and asked, ‘What did Carl mean when he said that you’re an angel?’ I didn’t know what he had said, but I was naturally dying to hear more,” Parton wrote. “Jane went on, ‘I was telling him how sweet you are and how easy you are to work with, and he said, “Well, she’s an angel.” I kinda laughed and said, ‘Yeah, she is.’ But he looked me right in the eye and said, ‘No, you don’t get it. She’s a real angel.’”
She said she found this incredibly flattering.
“I was flattered and honored that Carl thought that,” Parton wrote. “It’s just like him to say it to somebody else, figuring I’ll never hear about it. He sees me go through a lot, and I think he admires the way I handle it.”
She said he loves to flirt
It came as no surprise to Parton that her husband may have come to set in order to see Fonda. She said he often checks out beautiful women, even when he’s with her. She rarely has a problem with this.
“He has other favorite women scattered in various places, whether it be the girl at the bank, the insurance company, or whatever,” she said, adding, “He communicates well with women, and he loves to brag on them, as long as it’s okay with me, which it always is. He always checks women out, whether it’s okay with me or not.”
She said that while he flirts, she’s confident she’s the only woman he’s ever been with.
“He only looks and talks,” Parton wrote. “I believe with all my heart that I am the only woman Carl has ever been intimate with.”
