<p id=”par-1_58″><a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/dolly-parton/”>Dolly Parton</a> and her <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/celebrity-relationships/?swcfpc=1″>husband</a>, Carl Dean, were married for nearly 60 years. She said they got along well despite their many differences, and she never wanted to do anything that could jeopardize their relationship. Still, they hurt each other’s feelings in their decades together. Parton shared one seemingly innocuous thing Dean did that made her feel terrible.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-dolly-parton-said-her-husband-never-called-her-by-her-own-name”>Dolly Parton said her husband never called her by her own name</h2>
<p id=”par-2_12″>Though it sounds like a stage name, Parton’s <a target=”_blank” href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-parton-answered-dolly-really-name.html/” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>real name is Dolly</a>. </p>
<p id=”par-3_49″>“A lot of people ask me if Dolly’s my real name,” she told Ralph Emery, pe the book <em>Dolly on Dolly</em>. “They think it’s a show name, but I guess my mama knew I was gonna wanna be a star, so she just named me Dolly to start with.”</p>
<p id=”par-4_23″>She rarely ever heard her first name around the house, though. Parton said she couldn’t stand it when her husband called her Dolly.</p>
<p id=”par-5_40″>“When he’s talking to other people, he says ‘the old lady’ or ‘she,’” she told Playboy in 1978. “Or ‘crazy woman.’ He never says Dolly, never. And if he does, it hurts my feelings so bad — ain’t that crazy?”</p>
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<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-width=”550″ data-dnt=”true”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Dolly Parton and her husband , Carl Thomas Dean. They first met in 1964. <a href=”https://t.co/ONOyRTMgwS”>pic.twitter.com/ONOyRTMgwS</a></p>— History Defined (@historydefined) <a href=”https://twitter.com/historydefined/status/1911271988225548421?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>April 13, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
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<p id=”par-6_13″>He felt the same way. Both believed first names were not intimate enough.</p>
<p id=”par-7_43″>“If I say Carl, he won’t even react,” she said. “He hates me to call him Carl. He’ll say, ‘Call me son of a b****, call me anything, but don’t call me Carl.’ That’s what everybody calls him, so it’s not personal enough.”</p>
<p id=”par-8_9″>Parton said she typically referred to Dean as “Daddy.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-dolly-parton-s-husband-had-another-nickname-for-her”>Dolly Parton’s husband had another nickname for her</h2>
<p id=”par-9_10″>Parton said Dean had a number of nicknames for her.</p>
<p id=”par-10_33″>“I always call him Daddy and he calls me Mama or Little Kid or Angel Cakes,” she told the Ladies Home Journal. “Sometimes he calls me Dotty to be silly: ‘Okay, Li’l Dotty.’”</p>
<p id=”par-11_31″>He also had <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-partons-husband-calls-catfish-jokingly-insulting-reason.html/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>another, ruder nickname</a> for her that showcased their easy, joking relationship: Catfish. Per <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-partons-husband-calls-catfish-jokingly-insulting-reason.html/”>Rolling Stone</a>, he explained that this is because she is “all mouth and no brains.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-she-spoke-about-their-relationship-dynamic-nbsp”>She spoke about their relationship dynamic </h2>
<p id=”par-12_24″>While Parton and Dean were of the same mind on not wanting to be called by their first names, they differed in many ways.</p>
<p id=”par-13_25″>“We’re completely opposite, but that’s what makes it fun,” she told <a target=”_blank” href=”https://people.com/dolly-parton-gives-rare-insight-into-marriage-husband-carl-dean-8758507″ rel=”noreferrer noopener”>People</a>. “I never know what he’s gonna say or do. He’s always surprising me.”</p>
<p id=”par-14_12″>She said their shared <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-partons-good-humor-comes-both-sides-family.html/”>sense of humor</a> has brought them closer together.</p>
<p id=”par-15_47″>“He’s quiet and I’m loud, and we’re funny,” she said. “Oh, he’s hilarious. And I think one of the things that’s made it last so long through the years is that we love each other [and] we respect each other, but we have a lot of fun.”</p>
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<iframe loading=”lazy” title=”Dolly Parton’s Husband Carl Dean Dies: What She Shared About Their LASTING LOVE” width=”925″ height=”520″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/5wXxgdzY65k?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-16_14″>She explained that being able to joke with each other helped them avoid fights. </p>
<p id=”par-17_95″>“Anytime [there’s] 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,” she said. “We never fought back and forth. And I’m glad now that we never did, because once you start that, that becomes a lifetime thing. I’ve seen it with so many people, and I thought, ‘I ain’t ever starting that.’ I couldn’t bear to think that he’d say something I couldn’t take… because I’m a very sensitive person toward other people and myself.”</p>