Dolly Parton opens up about life without husband Carl Dean: 'You do the best you can'
Dolly Parton is making true on her signature promise, "I will always love you."
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, the celebrated songstress opened up about life without husband Carl Dean, who died in March, revealing that while work has kept her busy, she knows she "will miss him forever."
"I'm having to really go through a lot, trying to be without him because I was with him for so long," Parton said. The singer, 79, met Dean when she was 18 years old, and the two spent six decades together.
"I'm doing as well as someone can after 60 years of being with and loving somebody," she continued. "When Carl did pass away, I thought I gotta do something, so I'm going to just put that song out as a tribute to him."
Shortly after Dean's death, Parton released "If You Hadn't Been There," a single chronicling their tender and enduring love, and decorated with a cover photo of the pair shortly after their first meeting.
"I fell in love with Carl Dean when I was 18 years old," Parton wrote in an Instagram post announcing the song. "We have spent 60 precious and meaningful years together. Like all great love stories, they never end. They live on in memory and song. He will always be the star of my life story, and I dedicate this song to him." The track, a slow-moving ballad characteristic of Parton's signature sound, pays tribute to Dean's support throughout their relationship.
For a woman known by her words, Parton stayed fairly mum on Dean throughout their near 60-year marriage. That he rarely made any public appearances only grew the mystique around him. Since his death, fans have been given more of a window than ever into the leading man behind one of the music industry's most leading women.
"He did suffer a lot for the last few years, and there's a part of me that's happy that he's at peace and at rest," Parton told ET. "But then, of course, there's that part of me that will miss him forever and long for him every day for the rest of my life.
"It's always hard to lose someone that you love, but you do the best you can and the fact that I've got my work has been probably the best blessing," she continued.
It was Dean's enduring support that allowed her to strive for excellence in music and cultivate a lasting bond, she often said.
"There's always that safety, that security, that strength," she told Knox News, part of the Paste BN Network, in 2024. "He's a good man, and we've had a good life and he's been a good husband."
And just like any couple, despite the glitz and glam of Parton's stage life, she planned to put it all aside if Dean "needed" her.
"I would only retire if I was ill or if my husband was ill and needed me," Parton told Paste BN in 2024. "That'd be the only thing that would make me pull back."