Dolly Parton is an open book who will happily discuss everything from her extensive surgery through to her impoverished childhood and love of the opposite sex.

But still wild rumours about the Jolene singer abound, with the most popular including that her husband doesn’t exist; her marriage is a sham; she’s actually gay and is covered in tattoos.

But Dolly’s rarely-seen husband Carl Dean is very much the real deal, having chosen to live quietly in the background of her glitzy life since their first meeting outside Nashville’s Wishy-Washy laundromat when she was just 18.

Dolly, 74 – whose new book Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics is out today – caught Carl’s eye, then 21, with her revealing outfit, and he knew from the second they met that she was The One.

“My first thought was I’m going to marry that girl,” Carl once said. “My second was, ‘Lord she’s good lookin.’ And that was the day my life began.”

Dolly signed with Monument Records soon after and married Carl in a small ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia in 1966, with only her mother as a witness.

But fame wasn’t something Carl wanted or enjoyed and he instead chose to live a quiet life on their sprawling farm, running his paving firm until his recent retirment.