<p id="par-1_63">Dolly Parton and her husband, Carl Dean, <a href="https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-parton-said-child-country-star.html/">never had children</a>. She said that while she loved being around kids, she didn’t want them for herself. During a <a href="https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-parton-felt-temporarily-broken-last-time-career-hold-illness.html/">period of health issues</a>, Parton made the decision to get a partial hysterectomy. While she felt it was the right move, she admitted to feeling guilty that she did it without speaking to her husband first.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dolly-parton-said-she-got-her-tubes-tied-without-talking-to-her-husband-first">Dolly Parton said she got her ‘tubes tied’ without talking to her husband first</h2>
<p id="par-2_19">In the early 1980s, Parton began dealing with health problems, leading her to ask her doctor for surgical intervention.</p>
<p id="par-3_59">“I had to have a couple of D & C’s to control hemorrhaging. I was all nerves,” she wrote in the book <em>Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business</em>, adding,<em> </em>“I even started to drink some to ease my pain. I finally asked my doctor to tie my tubes so that I could get off the birth control pills.”</p>
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<p id="par-4_14">Parton said she hadn’t wanted children, so she knew this was the right move.</p>
<p id="par-5_25">“Carl and I had never really wanted to have kids,” she wrote. “I love kids. I’m crazy about them, as long as they’re somebody else’s.”</p>
<p id="par-6_27">Still, she <a href="https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/why-dolly-parton-used-to-feel-guilty-about-not-having-children.html/">felt slightly guilty</a> about not wanting children. Her hysterectomy only added to this feeling, especially because she didn’t talk to Dean about it in advance.</p>
<p id="par-7_78">“People had often asked me about having children, and I always felt guilty and selfish if I said I didn’t want them,” she wrote. “So sometimes I would just say I couldn’t have them, and that lie made me feel even more guilty. That guilt added to the other pain I was going through. In my mind, it was almost as if I had had an abortion, having my tubes tied and not even consulting Carl about it.”</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dolly-parton-didn-t-think-it-would-have-been-fair-for-her-and-her-husband-to-have-kids">Dolly Parton didn’t think it would have been fair for her and her husband to have kids</h2>
<p id="par-8_25">Parton is extremely dedicated to her career. While she likes children, she didn’t think <a href="https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-parton-said-fair-kids.html/">it would be fair</a> to raise them with her fast-paced lifestyle.</p>
<p id="par-9_44">“I love kids, but it wouldn’t be fair to put children through the kind of life that I lead,” she told Playgirl in 1981, per the book <em>Dolly on Dolly</em>. “Carl doesn’t want children either. If he did, I would have them, I’m sure.”</p>
<p id="par-10_16">Still, Parton spent much of her life helping to raise her younger siblings, <a href="https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-parton-family-nieces-nephews.html/">nieces, and nephews</a>.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-she-believes-she-would-have-been-a-good-mother">She believes she would have been a good mother</h2>
<p id="par-11_34">While Parton doesn’t have kids of her own, she loves spending time with them. She noted that she thinks she would have been a good mother. This would have completely changed her life, though.</p>
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<p id="par-12_47">“I would have been a great mother, I think,” Parton said, per <a target="_blank" href="https://www.eonline.com/news/1414273/dolly-parton-gave-rare-insight-into-marriage-with-husband-carl-dean-months-before-his-death" rel="noreferrer noopener">E! News</a>. “I would probably have given up everything else. Because I would’ve felt guilty about that, if I’d have left them [to work]. Everything would have changed. I probably wouldn’t have been a star.”</p>