Dolly Parton and Carl Dean were married from 1966 to 2025 until his demise, but never had a child. In her memoir ‘Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business,’ she spoke about how she loves children but never wanted her own. “Carl and I had never really wanted to have kids,” she wrote, before adding how she lied to avoid the guilt from judgments, “People had often asked me about having children, and I always felt guilty and selfish if I said I didn’t want them. So sometimes I would just say I couldn’t have them, and that lie made me feel even more guilty.”

During a 2020 interview with Oprah Winfrey, she dedicated a significant portion of her success to her decision not to have a child. “Since I had no kids and my husband was pretty independent, I had freedom. So I think a big part of my whole success is the fact that I was free to work,” she expressed.