Country music legend Dolly Parton, known for her incredible singing voice, bold style, and cheeky attitude, kept several surprising secrets about her personal life. From hidden tattoos to her intimate bedroom tips, the star was never afraid to speak her mind. As fans mourn the death of one of Hollywood's biggest icons, Daily Star looks back at Dolly's sassiest remarks and saucy stories.
Playboy Cover
Dolly posed for Playboy in March 1978 for a profile about herself. She wore a busty black corset, black bunny ears, and a white bow tie as she smiled for the camera. Although she showed some skin, Dolly refused to strip off further and drew the line at full frontal nudity.
At the time, Dolly said: "I got kind of scared when I thought they wanted me to do something. I didn’t want to be naked on the front of a magazine unless everybody would know it was a joke. I wouldn’t want to be naked, even then."
'Open' Marriage
Dolly was notoriously quiet about her almost six-decade-long marriage to Carl Dean, who preferred to stay out of the spotlight before his death in 2025. However, she opened up to Entertainment Tonight about their "open" marriage.
She told them: "[Carl] said: 'I didn’t choose this world [of celebrity], I chose you and you chose that world, but we can keep our lives separate and together,' and we do and we have!" In her 2017 book, Parton said: "Yes, it’s an open relationship but not sexually and I would kill him if I thought he was doing that!"
Sex Secrets and Tattoos
Parton never revealed at what age she lost her virginity. The Daily Mail reported that the blonde bombshell said it "would probably be real perverted" because "as little kids, they were always experimenting." She admitted that she had "always loved sex" and "never had a bad experience with it." She never viewed sex as "dirty," rather as "something very intimate and very real."
Dolly also spoke to E! News about how she kept things "spicy" for her husband: "Every day I put on some makeup and fix my hair because I think: 'Well, the whole world, I’m out here and everybody else sees me all dressed up and I’m not going to just, kind of, go home and flop on him.' Nobody wants to make out with a slouch! It’s important to me that I look as good as I can, I think it kind of helps keep things spicy."
Another aspect of Dolly's life she kept private was her secret collection of tattoos. The singer once admitted she had several butterflies inked on her body to show her love for the delicate creatures. Dolly explained: "Butterflies don't sting, they don't bite, and they are so beautiful. I just kind of related to them with my own personality, I claimed them as my little symbol."
Little else is known about Dolly's other body art, though she previously mentioned she got them for practical purposes like concealing scars. She explained: "I've had surgeries for different things, and if the scars didn't heal properly, I just gotta put tattoos to take the sting out. I don't have the real heavy, dark tattoos. Mine are all pastel. And I have more than one!"
Plastic Surgery Quips
Dolly openly discussed her numerous plastic surgery procedures and uttered her famous line while chatting with Oprah in 2003. The blonde bombshell, known for her love of rhinestones, large bouffant hair, and red lipstick, jokingly quipped: "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap!" When questioned about whether she would continue to have cosmetic surgery, Parton replied: "If I see something sagging, bagging or dragging, I'll get it nipped, tucked or sucked."
