Dolly Parton says she had to turn down the chance to have tea with Kate Middleton

• Dolly Parton joked about saying no to Kate Middleton's invitation to tea on BBC Radio 2.
• Parton told BBC Radio 2's Sally Boazman that it was very sweet of Middleton to invite her.

Country megastar Dolly Parton joked about turning down Kate Middleton's invitation to tea, saying that meeting the princess wouldn't have helped boost her record sales.

Parton told BBC Radio 2's Sally Boazman, in an interview that aired Saturday, that the Princess of Wales wanted to meet her during her recent trip to London.

"This time, Lordy, they've got me. I even got invited to have tea with Kate, and I felt so bad. I couldn't even go," Parton told Boazman.

"I thought that it was very sweet and nice of her to invite me to tea, and one of these days, I'm going to be able to get to do that," Parton said. "That would be great."

But the singer-songwriter couldn't resist joking about why she had to give tea with Kate a miss.

"But she wasn't going to promote my rock album, so I had to say no," Parton said in between laughter.

This would not have been the first time Parton got to meet a member of the British royal family — she met the late Queen Elizabeth II back in 1977.

"I remember as a child being fascinated with the kings and queens and all their flamboyant clothes, people living in another world with riches and crowns and jewelry and all that," Parton told Insider in February.

"I was scared to death that I was not going to know how to curtsy, that I wasn't going to bend right, but she was just very warm, very sweet, and I could tell she was a very giving person," Parton said. "And just meeting the Queen of England, just to meet a queen, it was amazing."

Representatives for Parton and Middleton did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.