Dolly Parton reveals the secret to her 58-year marriage to husband Carl Thomas Dean

Country music icon Dolly Parton might be one of the biggest music stars in the world.

But the 9 to 5 and Jolene singer, 78, has managed to keep her personal life just that – private and personal.

She married husband Carl Thomas Dean, 82, back in 1966 and they will soon be celebrating a milestone 60 years together. 

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Now Parton has lifted the lid on her marriage and revealed the key to their happiness, saying that over the years, they “have a lot of fun” together and choose not to fight.

Appearing on the Dumb Blonde podcast, Parton called her husband a “good guy”.

“He’s a good guy. He’s quiet and I’m loud, and we’re funny, oh, he’s hilarious,” she admitted.

“And I think one of the things that’s made it last so long through the years is that we love each other [and] we respect each other, but we have a lot of fun.

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“Anytime there’s too much tension going on, either one of us can like, find a joke about it to really break the tension, where we don’t let it go so far.”

“We never fought back and forth. And I’m glad now that we never did, because once you start that, that becomes a lifetime thing. I’ve seen it with so many people, and I thought, ‘I ain’t ever starting that.’

“I couldn’t bear to think that he’d say something I couldn’t take… because I’m a very sensitive person toward other people and myself.”

She added that he happily let her pursue her country music star dreams while he stayed out of the limelight.

“He was a homebody and that worked well for us… he loves music but is not the least bit interested in being in it,” she said.

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It comes after Parton spoke about her decision to quit touring for good, saying she wants to spend more time with her husband and saying that a year-long tour is not something she wants to ”commit” to.

“I don’t tour anymore, I have so many business things and my husband and I are getting older… and I need to kind of be with him and I have so many things as you can see going on anyway,” Dolly explained to Good Housekeeping.

She said that she’s happy to do the odd performance every now and then, but a full-blown tour takes up a lot of time.

She added that she won’t be retiring anytime soon and will only have time off if she or her husband “get sick”.

“No, I wouldn’t know what to do if I retired, I might take off a month or a week unless my husband was sick and needed me or if I was sick. But let’s hope that never happens,” she said.

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