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Dolly Parton infamously wore a sexy cheerleading outfit when she performed at the Dallas Cowboys game on Thanksgiving that caught everyone’s attention — including her husband’s! The country singer, 78, recently told Page Six what her spouse of over 45 years, Carl Thomas Dean, 81, thought about her fabulous ensemble.
“He did say something like, ‘What? Is it, a little short, don’t you think?’ ” Dolly recalled in the interview published January 24. She also said that she told her husband during their November 2023 conversation that her outfit was “not as short” as the Cowboys cheer team’s uniforms.
Dolly wore the sexy ensemble when she performed at halftime during the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Commanders game this past Thanksgiving. Her outfit was complete with the signature blue crop top and tiny white shorts. Dolly asked the crowd, “You like my outfit?”, when she made her grand entrance at the game.
In her Page Six interview, the “Jolene” singer said that she wore the dramatic Cowboys getup as a joke. “I thought, if I can, if I could pull this off, that’d be a cool little thing to do,” she explained. “I thought most people would excuse me if it didn’t turn out. I thought, they’re just like us, some older woman making a bad mistake. Or I thought, well, maybe it’ll just be something cool to do.”
Dolly also revealed that she wore the cheerleading outfit when she flew home on a private plane, though her costume designer did give her a robe to throw on over it. “I put it on because I cannot fly all the way home with a bunch of men, you know, sitting here in this little…(outfit),” she said. “They’ll aggravate me to death, you know, if nothing else, just making jokes or comments.”
While Dolly is known for her life in the spotlight, her husband, who she married in May 1966, prefers a much quieter routine. Although Carl is rarely seen, it’s clear that he’s the only man that Dolly’s ever loved in her life.
“He’s like, a quiet, reserved person and he figured if he ever got out there in that, he’d never get a minute’s peace and he’s right about that,” Dolly said about her husband and his preference to be out of the spotlight in an interview with Entertainment Tonight in 2020. “I’ve always respected and appreciated that in him and I’ve always tried to keep him out of the limelight as much as I can,” she added. “He said, ‘I didn’t choose this world, I chose you, and you chose that world. But we can keep our lives separate and together.’ And we do and we have.”
