Carl Dean, the husband of country music legend Dolly Parton has died.
He was aged 82.
The couple were married for almost 60 years, but the country music superstar kept the relationship out of the spotlight.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together.
“Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years,” Parton wrote in a post on X.
Dolly met Dean in 1964 outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat in Nashville, Tennessee. At the time, she was 18 and he was 21.
“I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face – a rare thing for me,” she said.
“He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about,” she added.
They married two years later in May 1966 in a simple ceremony attended only by Parton’s mother, the preacher and his wife.
