Dolly’s devoted ways

Dolly Parton has always been a one-man gal, said Lina Das in the London Daily Mail. The platinum-haired country legend has been faithful to her husband, Carl Dean, since the two first met in Nashville, when she was just 18. “We’ll never be old to each other,” says Parton, 65. Their marriage has survived countless rumors linking her to trysts with everyone from Burt Reynolds to Sylvester Stallone. “I love to flirt, and I’ve never met a man I didn’t like,” she confesses. “But Carl knows I’ll always come home and I’m not having sex with these people.”

She and Dean are seldom seen together, which has led to speculation that he’s a phantom husband. “Oh, he exists,” she says with a laugh. “He just loves staying home.” Men have thrown themselves at her throughout her career, attracted to her looks and to her “showdogs”—the word she uses for her famously large breasts—but Parton says she’s never had a problem setting potential suitors straight. “I got jumped on occasion. But I never slept with anybody to get ahead in my career. It didn’t take long for them to realize I wasn’t there to sell my body, but because my work was worthy.”

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