Dolly Parton says God didn’t mean her to have kids so she had career ‘freedom’

Dolly Parton has shared an insight into her 54-year-strong marriage to Carl Dean - and why they never started a family.

Songstress Dolly tied the knot with Carl back in 1966, but Dolly explained that they'd never had kids because she believes that's not what God wanted for her.

Chatting candidly to Oprah Winfrey for her new Apple series, the Jolene singer spilled: "I've made sacrifices [for my career] but I believe that I know what I'm supposed to do.

"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 added: "I didn't have children because I believe that God didn't mean for me to have kids so everybody's kids could be mine, so I could do things like the [book gifting program] Imagination Library."

She founded the Imagination Library in 1990.

Dolly continued: "If I hadn't had the freedom to work I wouldn't have done all the things I've done and I wouldn't be in the position to do all the things I'm doing."

And she addressed bizarre rumours about whether her husband is actually real or not, after years of shying away from the limelight.

"A lot of people have thought that through the years," Dolly recalled, "because he does not want to be in the spotlight at all.

"It's just not who he is. He's like, a quiet, reserved person and he figured if he ever got out there in that, he'd never get a minute's peace and he's right about that."

Respecting her husband's decision, she's done her best to keep him removed from her massive fame.

She previously told Entertainment Tonight : "I've always respected and appreciated that in him and I've always tried to keep him out of the limelight as much as I can.

"He said, 'I didn't choose this world, I chose you, and you chose that world. But we can keep our lives separate and together.' And we do and we have. We've been together 56 years, married 54."

Dolly even reckons it has something to do with the longevity of their union.

"Our joke about the fact, when people ask me why it's lasted this long, I say, 'Because I stay gone'," she remarked.

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