Dolly Parton sets the record straight on decades of ‘crazy rumours’

In a candid interview, legendary country music icon Dolly Parton has opened up about the whirlwind of speculation that has surrounded her throughout her illustrious career.

The 77-year-old singer-songwriter addressed the gossip that has circulated in the media for decades, telling Saga magazine that she has “heard so many crazy rumours about me through the years”.

“The worst stories were ones saying that my back was broke because my boobs were so heavy! And they’ve had me having an affair with everybody I’ve ever worked with,” she said

Among those entwined in such rumours were Sylvester Stallone, her on-screen partner in the 1984 cinematic gem Rhinestone and Burt Reynolds, her co-star from two years prior in the acclaimed The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Such persistent and nasty speculation could put a strain on any marriage, however, Parton’s husband, Carl Dean, takes such things in stride.

“He’s always treated these things tongue-in-cheek and he’ll say, ‘Hell, I’d feel bad for any man that didn’t fall in love with her’,” Parton revealed.

Amidst the relentless swirl of rumours and the challenges of life on the touring circuit, it remains a heartening revelation to witness Parton’s enduring marriage flourish over the years.

Parton recently shared some sage advice that she credits for keeping the flame alive in her decades-long marriage.

“I like it when people say, ‘How did it last so long?’ I say, ‘I stay going,’” Parton said during an interview with ET Canada.

“You know, there’s a lot to be said about that.

“So, we’re not in each other’s face all the time. He’s not in the business, so we have different interests, but yet we have the things we love to do together. So it was meant to be, I think. He was the one I was supposed to have and vice versa.”

The couple first met back in 1964 in a laundromat in Nashville when Parton had first moved into town, she was 18 and he was 21.

It was love at first sight for the pair who dated for two years before tying the knot.

While their love endures, Parton and her husband prefer to keep a low profile, seldom appearing together in public.

Parton explained the reason for this in a recent episode of her Apple Music Show, What Would Dolly Do?.

“Carl has never been in the limelight at all, never wanted to be in it. He don’t like it. He went to one thing with me early on, when we first married, to a BMI Song of the Year [event],” she explained.

She admitted that his experience at the event wasn’t a positive one.

“He came out there taking off his tuxedo, his tie and all that and said, ‘Don’t ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going.’ I never asked him and he never did,” she said.