Dolly Parton Shares Old Picture With Husband Carl Dean

Dolly Parton has shared a sweet, throwback picture with her husband Carl Dean, whom she has been married to for 55 years.

The legendary county singer posted a photo on Instagram of herself and Dean holding hands when they were younger. Dean was wearing a (photoshopped) Dolly Parton T-shirt on.

“Find you a partner who will support you like my Carl Dean does!” Parton wrote.

Patron’s post was to promote her “Dolly Vintage Collage Tee,” which is currently on sale for $38 on her website.

Parton first met Dean at a Nashville laundromat the day after she arrived in the city. The two married in 1966 in Georgia. The couple renewed their wedding vows in 2016 for their 50th anniversary. Dean has been known to keep out of the public eye but has supported his superstar wife behind the scenes.

“A lot of people have thought that through the years because he does not want to be in the spotlight at all,” Patron told Entertainment Tonight in October 2020. “It’s just not who he is. He’s like a quiet, reserved person and he figured if he ever got out there in that, he’d never get a minute of peace and he’s right about that.”

She added that she wants to respect his privacy, being that she is a household name around the country.

“He said, ‘I didn’t choose this world, I chose you, and you chose that world. But we can keep our lives separate and together.’ And we do and we have.”

The pair never had any children, but Parton told Oprah Winfrey last year that prompted her to be able to work even more.

“Since I had no kids, and my husband was pretty independent, I had freedom,” she told Winfrey on her AppleTV+ show. “So I think a big part of my whole success is the fact that I was free to work.”