Before She Died, Dolly Parton Admitted the Affair of the Heart That ‘Almost Killed Her’

In 1986, Dolly Parton admitted an "affair of the heart" that just about killed her, and then she never said another word about who it was. For 40 years, the internet has filled that silence with confident names and dramatic claims, most of them without a source. In this video we go back to what Dolly actually said. We line up her own quotes from Ladies' Home Journal, Barbara Walters, Playboy, Vanity Fair and more, and piece the mystery together through five clues. We look at the four words almost everyone skips in her famous sentence. We revisit the difficult 1982 set of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. We go through the men people have long suspected: Porter Wagoner, Kenny Rogers and Burt Reynolds, plus her lifelong friend Judy Ogle, and what Dolly said on the record about each of them. We also explore her playful "maybe I have, maybe I ain't" style of answering, and the remarkable 60-year love story with her husband Carl Dean. Where Dolly spoke, we quote her. Where something is only a rumor, we call it a rumor. And where nobody knows, we say so. This is a Dolly Parton documentary about heartbreak, loyalty and a secret she chose to keep. It's also about a song title that may say more than any confession. What was your guess before watching? Tell us in the comments. Subscribe for more celebrity stories told carefully, with the receipts. #DollyParton #CarlDean #CelebrityMystery #CountryMusic #Documentary