Entertainment

Dolly Parton Recreates Iconic Playboy Cover For Her Husband's Birthday

by Julie Scagell
Harry Langdon/Getty and Dolly Parton/Instagram

The country singer posed for Playboy the first time 43 years ago

Beloved country star Dolly Parton had a big surprise for her husband’s birthday this year and delivered it in a way only she can. She presented her husband of 57 years, Carl Thomas Dean, with a recreated picture of her Playboy cover in 1978 — donning the bunny ears and all.

“Remember sometime back I said I was going to pose on the cover of Playboy Magazine when I was 75? Well, I’m 75 and they don’t have a magazine anymore,” she said in an Instagram video, captioning it, “It’s always #HotGirlSummer for my husband, Carl.” She said he always loved her original Playboy cover, “so I was trying to think of something to do to make him happy.”

Parton was the first country singer to pose on the cover of Playboy and she looks as fabulous as ever in her latest photo shoot done just for her husband. “He still thinks I’m a hot chick after 57 years and I’m not gonna try to talk him out of that,” the Steel Magnolias star said with a laugh. “And I hope he agrees. What do you think?”

Parton and Dean have been together for decades but he’s rarely seen with his wife, preferring a life out of the public eye instead. Even in her video, only the back of his head was shown but we’re pretty sure he had a giant smile on his face when he got his birthday gift. The framed art had her old cover and the new photo beside it.

“Well, the old new Dolly,” she said. “In the first one, I was kind of a little butterball in that one. Well, I’m string cheese now. But he’ll probably think I’m cream cheese,” Parton said, winking at the camera. “I hope!”

Dean, while not in the public eye much, has talked about his love for his wife and what he thought when they first met in Nashville all those years ago. “My first thought was I’m gonna marry that girl,” he said on Dolly’s official website. “My second thought was, ‘Lord she’s good lookin.’ And that was the day my life began.”

Parton has talked about the secret to their long marriage in the past. “I always joke and laugh when people ask me what’s the key to my long marriage and lasting love.” Parton told People in 2018. “I always say, ‘Stay gone!’ and there’s a lot of truth to that. I travel a lot. But we really enjoy each other when we’re together and the little things we do.”

“Happy birthday my love!” she finished the birthday video. A true icon, indeed.