Dolly Parton 'Expressed Sadness' She Never Welcomed Children in 'Unconventional' Marriage to Late Husband Carl Dean, Insider Reveals

Dolly Parton allegedly always felt a bit disappointed she never welcomed children during her nearly 60-year marriage to Carl Dean.

An author and filmmaker who worked closely with Parton over the years offered insight into their relationship after the superstar passed away at age 80 on Tuesday, August 25.

Randy Schmidt worked with the country crooner on the book Dolly on Dolly: Interviews and Encounters With Dolly Parton.

"Dolly and Carl certainly had an unconventional marriage, but it seemed to work beautifully for them," he explained.

Schmidt told Page Six that Parton often "expressed sadness" that she could never bring children into their lives.

"She couldn’t be the woman she had imagined herself being in that regard,” he added.

Parton opened up about why the couple never expanded their family on multiple occasions, noting she "couldn't have children" despite "trying for years."

"But she and Carl were always surrounded by children,” Schmidt shared. “Early in their marriage, they even helped raise some of Dolly’s younger siblings, and she remained extraordinarily close to her nieces and nephews."

The "9 to 5" singer eventually began to see herself as "everybody's mother."

"When I was a girl and fooling around, I was scared to death I’d get pregnant, and then when I got married and wanted to have children, I couldn’t have any. But I don’t miss it. I did for a while, but I realize that I am everybody’s mother," she told Andy Warhol in 1984.

"She ultimately came to believe that perhaps not having children of her own allowed her to give more of herself to other people’s children," Schmidt elaborated. "As for their marriage, there’s no indication that it diminished what she and Carl had together."

Dean largely stayed out of the spotlight despite his wife's superstardom, leaving Parton to attend events and red carpets on her own. The couple met in their early 20s, before the musician became a household name.

"In the early years, she spoke quite candidly about the freedom they gave each other and the fact that they each lived very independent lives," the insider mused. "Some of those comments weren’t particularly well received by her fans, and I think she eventually learned to keep that part of her life much more private."

The Grammy-winner often joked that the secret to their long and healthy marriage was to "stay gone."

Parton died after a brief battle with cancer, more than a year after Dean passed away following a prolonged illness.

The star often admitted that she neglected her own health while she cared for her ailing husband, which Schmidt called "extraordinarily difficult" for Parton.

"She wasn’t always paying enough attention to her own needs,” he said. “Whether that contributed to her death medically isn’t something I could speculate about, but emotionally, it had to have been an extraordinarily difficult period for her."