Dolly Parton's husband thinks he would "never get a minute's peace" if he was in the spotlight.
Dolly Parton
The 'Jolene' hitmaker has been married to Carl Thomas Dean since 1966 but she insists he likes to be private and isn't interested in being a part of Dolly's fame and success.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, she shared of her relationship: "A lot of people have thought that [he is imaginary] through the years because he does not want to be in the spotlight at all. 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’s peace and he's right about that.
"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."
Meanwhile, Dolly previously insisted she didn't have children because "God didn't mean" for her to have kids but says it allowed her to focus fully on her career with "freedom".
She said: "I've made sacrifices but I believe that I know what I'm supposed to do. But you've got to make the sacrifice. Since I had no kids, and my husband was pretty independent, I had freedom. So I think a big part of my whole success is the fact that I was free to work ... I didn't have children because I believe that God didn't mean for me to have kids so everybody's kids could be mine, so I could do things like the [book gifting program] Imagination Library. If I hadn't had the freedom to work I wouldn't have done all the things I've done and I wouldn't be in the position to do all the things I'm doing."
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