Dolly Parton speaks out after her husband, Carl Thomas Dean, dies at 82

Dolly Parton took to social media on March 3 to make a heartbreaking announcement.

In her statement, Parton announced that her ultra-private husband, Carl Thomas Dean, had died.

“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 is survived by his siblings Sandra and Donnie,” the post read.

“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,” Parton said in the post. “The family asks for privacy during this difficult time.”

Dean and Parton had been married since 1966.

In a 2011 interview, Parton said she and Dean were “really very proud of our marriage. It’s the first for both of us. And the last.”

In a separate interview with ET Canada, Parton said the secrets to their decades-long marriage were distance, a sense of humor, never crossing the line, and having different interests.

“I like it when people say, ‘How did it last so long?’ I say, ‘It’s [still] going.’ You know, there’s a lot to be said about that.”

“So, we’re not in each other’s face all the time,” she continued. “He’s not in the business, so we have different interests, but yet we have the things we love to do together.”

Dean and Parton met in 1964 after she moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Parton had walked into the laundromat Dean was at with a pile of dirty clothes.

Two years later, they became husband and wife.

While a guest on the “Dumb Blonde” podcast in December 2024, Parton shared that Dean attended one of her first award shows in 1967, where she won BMI Song of the Year.

Dean was the first to admit, it wasn’t his scene.

“I wish you the best, but don’t ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going,” Parton recalled him saying. “He loves music, but he’s not the least bit interested in being in it.”