On Tuesday, Aug. 25, the country music icon died, 17 months after her husband’s death in March 2025
Credit: Miller Mobley/NBC via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Dolly Parton revealed she and her husband Carl Dean already had a name picked out if they welcomed a daughter
- While speaking with The Guardian in December 2014, the late country music icon candidly shared her feelings about not welcoming children with her late husband
- During the conversation, Parton also shared what type of mother she thinks she would have been
Dolly Parton and her husband Carl Dean already had a name picked out if they were going to welcome a daughter.
While speaking with The Guardian in December 2014, the country music icon, who died on Tuesday, Aug. 25, at age 80, opened up about not having any kids with her late husband. Parton shared that she and Dean, who died in March 2025 at age 82, always thought about what their kids would have looked like, adding that they already had a name ready for a little girl.
“You always wonder,” she said. “My husband and I, when we first got married, we thought about if we had kids, what would they look like? Would they be tall because he’s tall? Or would they be little squats like me?”
“If we’d had a girl, she was gonna be called Carla,” added Parton. “Anyway, we talked about it, and we dreamed it, but it wasn’t meant to be. Now that we’re older? We’re glad.”
Credit: Jason Kempin/Getty
The Steel Magnolias star went on to share her thoughts about what type of mother she would have been.
“I would have been a great mother, I think,” she said. “I would probably have given up everything else. Because I would’ve felt guilty about that, if I’d have left them [to work, to tour]. Everything would have changed. I probably wouldn’t have been a star.”
Parton often explained in interviews that parenthood was just not meant to be for her and Dean. In a 2020 episode of Apple TV+’s The Oprah Conversation, the “Jolene” singer echoed her earlier sentiments, telling Oprah Winfrey that not being a mother gave her an independence that ultimately allowed her career to thrive.
“Since I had no kids, and my husband was pretty independent, I had freedom,” she said. “So I think a big part of my whole success is the fact that I was free to work.”
She admitted that she’d made “sacrifices” over the years, but believed there was a reason why her life shook out as it did.
“I didn’t have children because I believed that God didn’t mean for me to have kids so everybody’s kids could be mine, so I could do things like Imagination Library, because if I hadn’t had the freedom to work, I wouldn’t have done all the things I’ve done,” she told Winfrey. “I wouldn’t be in a position to do all of the things I’m doing now.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
In one of her final interviews, she opened up more about the sacrifices she’s made along the way, telling PEOPLE in 2025 that she’s grateful she never had to feel guilty about leaving children behind to work or tour.
“You know, I have just been going so fast my whole life. And I just start thinking, ‘How in the world did I even have a life? How did I even get it done?’ I really realized when I was putting this book [Star of the Show: My Life on Stage] together just how much I had sacrificed in my life,” she said. “I never had children, so at least I didn’t have a guilty feeling. I’m thankful that I got to see my dreams come true.”
Parton — who was notably Miley Cyrus’ godmother — did admit that motherhood was something she thought about early in her marriage, but she hasn’t “missed” raising kids like she thought she might.
“When you’re a young couple, you think you’re going to have kids, but it just wasn’t one of those burning things for me,” she told Saga magazine in 2023. “I had my career and my music, and I was traveling. If I’d had kids, I’d have stayed home with them, I’m sure, and worried myself to death about them.”
Read the full article here
