After 52 years of marriage, Dolly Parton and Carl Dean are still rockin’ and rollin’ strong together. They are certainly one of Hollywood’s longest lasting marriages. Despite their seemingly flawless marriage, they have definitely experienced some bumps in the road together.
The famous country singer released a book called Dolly on Dolly: Interviews and Encounters with Dolly Parton in 2017, in which she discusses an ‘affair of the heart’ that she experienced. The sad part is that after her “affair,” Dolly was left contemplating suicide.
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Dolly has acknowledged that she is a very solid person who is extremely sure of herself, but she knows that even the strongest people go through the worst of pain sometimes.
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She recalls some of the struggles she endured throughout her lifetime, including childhood poverty, experiencing a partial hysterectomy (becoming unable to bear children), and struggling with mental illness.
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The country icon remembers the day she contemplated taking her own life with a gun, saying, “I looked at it a long time. Then, just as I picked it up, just to hold it, and look at it for a moment, our little dog, Popeye, came running up the stairs. The tap-tap of his paws jolted me back to reality, I suddenly froze and I put the gun down.”
She followed that by saying she believes her little dog was sent as a spiritual messenger from God to jolt her back into reality.
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“Sometimes God just has to smack you down,” Dolly says about the experience, implying you may be knocked down a few times, but you need to keep getting back up every time you feel defeated.
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Dolly ultimately turned to God and to faith to help rebuild her interpersonal strength, which in turn, helped rebuild her marriage with Carl Dean as well.
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[H/T: Country Living]