Dolly Parton Was the 1st Person Porter Wagoner Loved Besides Himself, Claimed Journalist 

Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner’s relationship was platonic, but rumors abounded about a potential romantic connection between the two of them. Parton denied this on her end but acknowledged that Wagoner might have harbored feelings for her. A journalist familiar with the two of them believed Parton was the first person Wagoner truly loved.

A journalist believed Porter Wagoner loved Dolly Parton

Parton and Wagoner had a relatively fraught relationship, but it soured even further when she announced that she was pursuing a solo career. One journalist claimed that this was because Wagoner loved her.

“The main reason Dolly had such a hard time disentangling herself from Porter is because he was in love with her,” a journalist told Alanna Nash in the book Dolly: The Biography. “Porter was really torn up over losing Dolly. Really torn up.”

Parton also loved Wagoner in many ways, but the journalist said he saw something very special in her.

“[H]e really did love her, and I don’t think he’d ever been in love with anyone but himself,” they said. “And about Carl Dean, well, you know Porter was the main man in Dolly’s life all the years she was with him.”

Dolly Parton said Porter Wagoner might have loved her

While Parton denied that her relationship with Wagoner was anything but platonic, she admitted it was hard to explain their dynamic.  

“We were not lovers as you know lovers,” she said. “But it really wouldn’t have mattered whether we were or whether we weren’t. Like I say, it was a strange kind of relationship, hard to explain to the public. It was a love of its kind.”

She acknowledged that he could have had deeper feelings for her than she did for him.

“Maybe he was in love with me,” she said. “But it was a love of its kind. It was not a love that could ever be shared, if he was.”

She said their relationship became too close

The close bond between Parton and Wagoner ultimately led to the demise of their partnership. While they had high moments together, they also fought viciously.

“[A]nytime that you give that much of yourself to somebody and you’re as involved as we were — we experienced the joy and sorrow of all the things,” she said. “We fought in the studio, or at least there was bad times, but we also knew the joy of the same song that we might have fought over when it became a hit.”

They spent so much time together that the relationship could no longer sustain itself. Parton began to feel trapped, and knew she had to move forward on her own.

“But we didn’t have enough separation, which is why it got to be too much for both of us. Got to be extreme pressure,” she said. “And like I say, it was a relationship that would be very hard to explain.”