Dolly Parton is opening up about the special bond she shared with her late husband, Carl Dean, whom she was married to for nearly 60 years.
Parton spoke about why the two were so compatible on the latest episode of Khloe Kardashian’s podcast, “Khloé in Wonder Land,” which was released on Wednesday.
“You know, I’m not one of those people that has to have somebody around me all the time. In fact, I don’t like it,” Parton said. “I mean, I have to be out in the public and I belong to the public, but I am such a private person, and my husband was as well.”
“And that was the thing with us. We were so good for each other because he’s a total loner,” the country singer said of the unexpected quality she found in Dean. “We could just be in the house all day and say two or three words, didn’t matter. Or we could talk all afternoon, and lay in bed, talk at night.”
Kardashian asked Parton if her marriage was so successful because it was so private.
“We were different people. He was not involved in the music business at all. He loved music, but he was a loner, like I had said before,” Parton shared. “He did not want a bunch of people around him except me.”
She added that “there’s just certain personalities that are great for each other and we were together 61 years.” Parton and Dean first met in 1964.
She said that the two “were just so different” but also “so similar.”
Dean, who inspired one of Parton’s most iconic songs, “Jolene,” died in March. He was 82.
The “9 to 5” actor opened up about how she was coping after the death of her beloved husband, and described it as “a hole in my heart.”
“But we’ll fill that up with good stuff, and he’ll still always be with me,” she told Knox News in March. “He suffered a great deal, so I’m at peace with him being at peace.”
