During a December 2024 appearance on Bunnie Xo’s Dumb Blonde podcast, Parton reflected on what made her marriage work for so many years.
“We never fought back and forth,” she explained. “Anytime (there is) too much tension going on, either one of us can like, find a joke about it to really break the tension, where we don’t let it go so far.”
Aside from their senses of humor, Parton also teased that she made an effort to “look as good as I can” to help “keep things spicy” between them over the decades.
In November 2023, she also pointed out that simply liking each other can go a long way in a marriage.
“There’s the respect and the love, and I just like him!” she gushed on Zoe Ball’s Radio 2 Breakfast Show. “You know, I would have liked him if he wasn’t my husband, if he was somebody else’s husband I say, ‘You know that Carl Dean, ain’t he funny? Ain’t he a good guy?’ So, I think it’s just that mutual respect and we just like each other.”
Dean died at 82 in March 2025.
The next year, Parton passed away at 80.