<p id=”par-1_70″>While <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/dolly-parton/”>Dolly Parton</a> doesn’t have a child of her own, she has an idea of what she would have been like as a mother. She helped raise a number of her younger siblings and her nieces and nephews. She has also taken some younger musicians under her wing. Parton said she had a particularly strong bond with one <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/music/”>singer</a> and imagined her own child would be very similar to her.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-dolly-parton-believed-her-child-would-be-like-one-country-singer”>Dolly Parton believed her child would be like one country singer</h2>
<p id=”par-2_31″>In 1991, Parton worked with a then-20-year-old Alison Krauss on the song “If You Need Me.” Though Krauss was only at the start of her career, she felt she had peaked.</p>
<p id=”par-3_24″>“Nothing will ever top getting to sing with Dolly Parton,” she said, per the book <em>Smart Blonde</em> by Stephen Miller. “Now I can die.”</p>
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<iframe title=”If You Need Me” width=”925″ height=”694″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/fnh9p4IBIsc?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p id=”par-4_26″>Parton also enjoyed <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/music/robert-plant-solo-songs-achieved-led-zeppelin-never-could.html/”>working with Krauss</a>. She saw herself in the younger singer and believed that if she had a daughter, she would be like Krauss.</p>
<p id=”par-5_29″>“I just claimed her,” Parton said. “It was like she was my little soul mate; like if I’d have had a child, it would probably have been like Alison.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-dolly-parton-admitted-her-experiences-as-a-child-made-her-not-want-children”>Dolly Parton admitted her experiences as a child made her not want children</h2>
<p id=”par-6_42″>Parton and her husband, Carl Dean, planned on having children early in their marriage. Before she met him, though, Parton said she <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-parton-said-childhood-want-married.html/?swcfpc=1″>didn’t want to settle down</a> and start a family. She already had a taste of raising kids during her childhood.</p>
<p id=”par-7_42″>“I hadn’t intended to marry,” she said, per the book <em>Dolly: The Biography</em> by Alanna Nash. “All I had ever known was housework and kids and workin’ in the fields. But I didn’t want to be domestic; I wanted to be free.”</p>
<p id=”par-8_15″>She didn’t want anything to pull her away from her burgeoning career as a singer.</p>
<p id=”par-9_39″>“I had my songs to sing. I had an ambition, and it burned inside me,” she said. “It was something I knew would take me out of the mountains. I knew I could see worlds beyond the Smoky Mountains.”</p>
<p id=”par-10_18″>Part of the reason her relationship with Dean worked so well was that he always supported her career.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-parton-thinks-she-would-have-been-a-good-mother-but-doesn-t-have-regrets”>Parton thinks she would have been a good mother, but doesn’t have regrets</h2>
<p id=”par-11_25″>In early interviews, Parton discussed her hopes of <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-parton-wanted-6-children-21.html/”>raising a brood of children</a> with Dean. They even had a name picked out for a daughter.</p>
<p id=”par-12_62″>“We thought about if we had kids, what would they look like? Would they be tall — because [Carl Dean is] tall? Or would they be little squats like me?” she told <a href=”https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/dec/06/dolly-parton-more-to-me-than-big-hair-phoney-stuff” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>The Guardian</a> in 2014. “If we had a girl, she was gonna be called Carla … Anyway, we talked about it, and dreamed it, but it wasn’t meant to be.”</p>
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<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-width=”550″ data-dnt=”true”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>A young Dolly Parton with her husband Carl Dean. They’ve been married since 1966. <a href=”https://t.co/1BQvLJzkfs”>pic.twitter.com/1BQvLJzkfs</a></p>— Undiscovered History (@HistoryUnd) <a href=”https://twitter.com/HistoryUnd/status/1947895066359697756?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>July 23, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
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<p id=”par-13_37″>Parton said she has no regrets about not having kids. She is still an important figure in the lives of <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-parton-said-nieces-nephews-finally-started-respecting-worked-1-singer.html/”>her nieces and nephews</a>, and she never had to feel torn between her ambition and her family. </p>
<p id=”par-14_47″>“Now that we’re older? We’re glad,” she said. “I would have been a great mother, I think. I would probably have given up everything else. Because I would’ve felt guilty about that if I’d have left them. Everything would have changed. I wouldn’t have been a star.”</p>