As Dolly Parton’s husband dies, her net worth, why they never had children, is she related to Miley Cyrus?

Dolly Parton was married to her husband Carl Dean for nearly 60 years and she posted a statement on her social media which read: "Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can't do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy."

The couple married at a private ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia, on May 30, 1966, she had met Carl Dean two years earlier at a laundromat. She has previously spoken about meeting him for the first time and said: "I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me). He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about."

Dolly Parton and Carl Dean never had children and in an interview with Saga magazine, she said: "I haven't missed it like I thought I 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. I had my career and my music and I was travelling. If I'd had kids, I'd have stayed at home with them. I'm sure and worried myself to death about them."

Although Dolly Parton doesn’t have children, she has always enjoyed a very close relationship with her goddaughter Miley Cyrus and Miley told W magazine that “Dolly’s been like a mother to me.” When Dolly Parton appeared on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show The Howard Stern Show, Dolly explained that she became Miley’s godmother after becoming close to her dad, Billy-Ray Cyrus when the two of them toured together.

Are Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus actually related?

CNN reported in 2024 that “Genealogy and family tree tracking site Ancestry announced on Monday that by using “billions of historical records and public family trees,” they’ve discovered that the two music powerhouses are actually seventh cousins, once removed.

Their common ancestor is a man named John Brickey, who was born in Virginia in 1740, according to Ancestry. Brickey is Parton’s sixth great-grandfather and Cyrus’ seventh great-grandfather.”

When it comes to Dolly Parton’s wealth, according to Forbes, Dolly Parton has a net worth of $450M. In 1986, she invested in a theme park, Pigeon Forge in Tennessee and went on to change the name to Dollywood. Dolly Parton had a traumatic childhood because her brother died. Dolly Parton was only nine when her baby brother passed away but the traumatic event still impacts her today.

When she appeared on Bunny Xo’s Dumb Blonde podcast, she said: "He didn't live that long, actually. He died at birth.” She also revealed that “But I followed Mama around the whole time she was pregnant. She said that one was gonna be mine. I'd sing to it, kiss it on the belly, but he didn't make it."

Dolly Parton recalled that her baby brother’s death “just crushed me.” She also said: "I didn't understand about death and all of that. So that was a real hit for me at that age, that I had lost my baby," she continues. "I had a guilt thing about it, somehow."