Overview
- In a new People cover interview, Parton calls her nearly 59-year marriage to Carl Dean “a great old love story” and says, “without Carl, I wouldn’t be here.”
- Her memoir, Star of the Show: My Life on Stage, is out now and recounts their relationship from its 1964 Nashville laundromat beginnings to a lifetime of privacy and partnership.
- Dolly: A True Original Musical completed a summer run in Nashville and is now in workshops for an expected Broadway opening in 2026.
- The stage show portrays Dean onstage, with audiences applauding when the character introduces himself, a response Parton says Dean would have appreciated.
- Parton describes watching the actor play Dean as healing, saying it helps keep his presence alive following his March death at age 82.