Dolly Parton says a typical date night with her husband Carl Dean is a home-cooked romantic dinner

• Dolly Parton may be a superstar, but she enjoys date nights with her husband Carl Dean at home.
• "We meet downstairs and have a wonderful little romantic dinner," she says.

For Grammy-winning country music legend Dolly Parton, a typical date with her husband, Carl Dean, is a quiet, romantic dinner at home.

Dean, 81, and Parton, 78, have been dating for almost 60 years and have been married for 58.

Parton tells Business Insider that when it comes to date night, they both prefer staying home.

"Usually, I'll cook a really nice romantic dinner with all the fixings and all the desserts," she says.

"And then I say to him, 'Go upstairs and get dressed. You're dressing for dinner. I know you don't like to go out to restaurants, but you're going to dress up for me.'"

"And so I go to my end where my closet is, and then I'll get all dressed up, and we meet downstairs and have a wonderful little romantic dinner," she continues.

Parton said the pair are "very close" after many years of marriage.

"We've always been sweethearts as well as being best friends, as well as being husband and wife," she says. "So we just decide what we want to do."

Dean rarely makes public appearances with his famous wife. In November 2023, Parton said during a "What Would Dolly Do? Radio" episode that her husband did not like attending red carpets.

"Carl has never been in the limelight and all, never wanted to be in it," she said. "He don't like it."

Parton recalled that she once brought Dean to a BMI Song of the Year awards show after they married in 1966, but he didn't enjoy the experience.

"He came out there taking off his tuxedo, his tie, and all that, and said, 'Don't ever ask me to go to another one of these,'" she said. "I never asked him, and he never did."

Parton celebrated her 78th birthday earlier this month, but the country music legend tells BI that she didn't take the day off.

"Nothing wrong with working on your birthday if you're getting good stuff done, right?" she says during an interview where she promotes her new baking mixes with Duncan Hines and its parent company, Conagra.

Though she was snowed in, Parton says she didn't let that stop her from celebrating.

"I had all of these great cakes and ice cream," she says. "This year, I wanted a chocolate cake because it was so cold here, and we were snowed in."

On Tuesday, Parton announced that she had five new dessert mixes with Duncan Hines set to hit shelves later this month and a buttermilk pancake mix with Conagra, which will be available later this year.