Men are my weakness! Dolly Parton is rumoured to have had countless lovers in her 45-year marriage, but she says no one compares to her husband

You have to be a very early riser to catch Dolly Parton out. It's 7am at her office in Nashville, Tennessee, a ten-mile drive from her 23-room home on the city's outskirts, and she's already been up five hours, finalising arrangements for this month's UK tour.

The 'wee-hour wisdom', as she calls it, is a ritual she's stuck to throughout her 50-year career; making the most of the dawning day to take care of business, write songs and groom herself.

Today she's wearing a black fringed skirt over black shorts, five-inch stripper heels and a multi-coloured fitted jacket around her weeny waist and those historic breasts. It's a look that Dolly herself, now 65, admits is trashy.

'A lot of people have said I'd have probably done better in my career if I hadn't looked so cheap and gaudy,' she says in that famously lilting voice. 'But I dress to be comfortable for me, and you shouldn't be blamed because you want to look pretty. My husband likes me to look this way, and he's the one I want to please.'

Dolly's contradictions are fascinating – the Barbie doll with the business brain that places her net worth at some £600 million; the bubbly exterior that masks the soulful depths – but nothing intrigues as much as her relationship with her husband of 45 years, Carl Dean. Their long marriage has withstood countless rumours about Dolly's supposed affairs with everyone from Sylvester Stallone and Burt Reynolds to Judy Ogle, her assistant and best friend.

Some of her well publicised romances include affairs with movie superstars Sylvester Stallone and Burt Reynolds to mention only a few:

kosalabaro: Men are my weakness! Dolly Parton is rumoured to have had countless lovers in her 45-year marriage, but she says no one compares to her husband

BETA THAN BEING A LESBIAN

Dolly cannily likes to keep the speculation going. 'I love to flirt, and I've never met a man I didn't like,' she laughs. 'Men are my weakness. Short, fat, bald or skinny – I've had crushes on some very unusual men but Carl knows I'll always come home and I'm not having sex with these people – I'm just flirtin' and having fun.

'But that's healthy. If I'm away I'll say to my husband, "You don't mind if I fantasise about Keith Urban [Nicole Kidman's husband] tonight, do you?", and he doesn't. He says he'd think less of any man who didn't fall in love with me.

'But he really respects what I do and would hate to stand in the way of that. He always makes me feel pretty, even when I'm not. He'll say, "I like it when you wear your hair up high", and he even has clothes of mine in his closet that he'll bring out once in a while and say, "See if you can still get into this." I love dressing up for him,' she smiles. 'I think Carl will always see me the way he did when we first met, just as I do him. We'll never be old to each other.'

He always makes me feel pretty, even when I'm not... He'll say, "I like it when you wear your hair up high", and he even has clothes of mine in his closet.

The couple met the day Dolly arrived in Nashville as an 18-year-old, keen to pursue a career in music, and they've been together ever since. There is little photographic evidence of Mr Dean, who used to run an asphalt-laying company, leading to speculation that, like the Yeti, he may not even exist. 'Oh, he exists,' laughs Dolly, 'it's just he doesn't really like to be with anybody but me. He loves staying home and working on the farm.'

With Dolly often on tour, is it a case of absence making the heart grow fonder? 'I think so,' she nods, 'we're never stuck in each other's face. And any time we start getting a little testy with one another, I'll say, "Don't you need to go to the barn for a while?" – we know how to get out of each other's way without being offensive to one another.'

He won't be joining her for her UK tour. 'He doesn't like flying,' says Dolly, 'and he doesn't like crowds. I think he's also afraid I'll mess up during the show and won't know what to do about it.'

Dolly is one of the most successful recording artists of all time, her 'cheap and gaudy' exterior belying an exceptional vocal and writing talent that's earned her seven Grammy awards and produced 110 chart singles, including Jolene and 9 To 5. Her latest album, Better Day, is her 41st.

'Some people didn't think I was a class act because of my looks,' she says. 'But it didn't take them long to find out they were wrong.'
She's an astute businesswoman too, having founded her own theme park, Dollywood, a radio station, restaurants, and record and TV companies. She even has her own literacy programme, which distributes 2.5 million free books to children every year. Dolly and her husband have never had children of their own, although she says, 'I think I became more productive through not having children. I never really had the desire to have them. My husband didn't want them either, so it worked out well.'

She had a partial hysterectomy in 1984, which led to weight gain and depression. 'I've never been pregnant, so I just feel God didn't mean for me to have kids, so that everybody else's children could be mine,' she adds. 'But if I had had them, I think I'd have been a devoted mother. My songs are like my children – I expect them to support me when I'm old!'

I have tennis shoes with little rhinestones that I slip on if I exercise... But I always wear heels, even around the house
Dolly has been writing songs ever since she was seven growing up 'dirt poor' on a farm in Sevier County, Tennessee. The fourth of 12 children, she soon discovered her talent, and that, coupled with her extraordinary looks, was a passport to fame and popularity.


When she pitched up in Nashville as a teenager with that voice and that figure, did any of the male music honchos even bother talking to her face? 'I grew up around lots of men – my father, my brothers, my uncles – so I wasn't intimidated by them,' says Dolly, 'and feeling pretty and sexy actually empowered me.

'I got jumped on on occasion, but I always knew how to diffuse a situation without injuring their pride. I never slept with anybody to get ahead in my career. It didn't take long for them to realise I wasn't there to sell my body, but because my work was worthy.
'I'd say, "I have a gift and think I can make us both a lot of money – are you interested?", and they usually were.'

If Dolly's songs are her children, some of them, such as I Will Always Love You, have been over-achievers. Elvis Presley wanted to record it, 'but his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, wanted me to sign over half the publishing rights, which I couldn't do,' says Dolly. 'Everyone thought I was mad to turn down Elvis, but it was an executive decision.'

That decision was vindicated when Whitney Houston's 1992 rendition of the song turned it into one of the biggest hits of all time, earning Dolly some £4 million to date. To stand her ground at a time when women had yet to find their voice in the industry took some nerve. Not for nothing was Dolly nicknamed 'the Iron Butterfly'.

Her ultra-femininity is incredibly appealing and one can't help picturing her in her gym, working out in high heels. 'I'm not that bad,' she laughs. 'I have tennis shoes with little rhinestones that I slip on if I exercise. But I always wear heels, even around the house. I'm such a short little thing, I can't reach my kitchen cabinets.'

She's honest about her looks, and if there's a quip to be made, she's usually said it first and said it funnier. When asked once how long it took to do her hair, Dolly, an advocate of wig-wearing, replied, 'How do I know? I'm never there!'

As for the plastic surgery she's had on her face and her boobs (or 'showdogs', as she calls them), she says, 'I'll always do nips and tucks to keep everything up. I'll look the same if I get to be 100!'

Dolly's the epitome of what feminism espouses – achieving success in a male-dominated world on her own terms – but says, 'I've never been a feminist.' And with a hug, a kiss and a clack of her heels she's off, taking with her the two huge assets that have kept her at the top: her undoubted brains and her phenomenal talent.

Better Day is released by Sony Music on 29 August. Dolly's UK tour starts on 20 August in Glasgow. Tickets from www.livenation.co.uk. For more information on Dolly go to www.dollypartonmusic.net



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Lolzz...Old Woman wen Pipe never tire...Carry on Granny,Life's too short

I love her

I never even knew this much abt this woman.now I think she's super great.

I so much love this woman