Dolly Parton has no regrets about the special family she built with husband Carl Dena.
“My husband and I, when we first got married, we thought about if we had kids, what would they look like?” Parton, 79, shared with The Guardian in December 2014. “Would they be tall — because he’s tall? Or would they be little squats like me? If we’d had a girl, she was gonna be called Carla. We talked about it, and we dreamed it, but it wasn’t meant to be. Now that we’re older? We’re glad.”
Instead of having children of her own, Parton has spent much of her career showcasing her maternal instincts by helping countless children around the world.
In 1995, the “9 to 5” singer launched Imagination Library, a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth to age 5, no matter their family’s income.
“God has a plan for everything,” Parton said on the Today show in October 2017 after releasing her first children’s album I Believe In You. “I think it probably was his plan for me not to have kids so everybody’s kids could be mine. And they are now.”
Dolly Parton. Katherine Bomboy/NBC
Parton and Dean were married for nearly 60 years before his death was confirmed on Monday, March 3. His cause of death has yet to be revealed. He was 82.
Throughout her marriage to Dean, Parton praised her husband as being “very independent,” allowing her the freedom to build a successful career while standing in the spotlight on her own.
“I think a big part of my whole success is the fact that I was free to work,” she said during a November 2020 episode of Apple TV+’s The Oprah Conversation. “If I hadn’t had the freedom to work, I wouldn’t have done all the things I’ve done. I wouldn’t be in a position to do all of the things I’m doing now.”
While there was a period in Parton’s relationship where she thought kids would be part of her future with Dean, a battle with endometriosis complicated her fertility journey.
According to the Mayo Clinic, endometriosis is an often painful condition in which tissue similar to the uterine lining grows outside the uterus, causing pain, irregular periods and infertility.
Despite her health issue, Parton made it clear prior to her husband’s passing that the pair lived their lives without any regrets.
“I’m very close to my family — five of my younger brothers and sisters lived with me and Carl for many years — and we’re very close to our nieces and nephews,” she told Billboard in October 2014. “Now that Carl and I are older, we often say, ‘Aren’t you glad we didn’t have kids? Now we don’t have kids to worry about.’”
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