Dolly Parton addresses lesbian rumors on 'Nightline'

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(Yahoo!) - No, Dolly Parton hasn't been living a lie for the last 46 years. On Monday night's "Nightline," the country icon, who has been married to the rarely seen Carl Dean since 1966, addressed rumors that she's gay, rumors that have stemmed from her close relationship with longtime best friend Judy Ogle.

"Judy and I have been best friends since we were like in the third and fourth grade," she says in the interview with Juju Chang. "I mean, I love her as much as I love anybody in the whole world, but we're not romantically involved."

The rumors are similar to those that have dogged Oprah Winfrey regarding her relationship with her BFF Gayle King. Parton notes she and Winfrey have laughed about the false reports.

"We do talk about that — Gayle, her friend; Judy, my friend. They just think that you just can't be that close to somebody," she explains.

Despite the fact that many celebs who tie the knot at a young age end up divorcing, Parton and husband Dean, who were 20 and 24 respectively when they wed are still together, in part because he tends to stay out of the spotlight. "He's proud of me. He's just basically shy about things like that. He doesn't like crowds," she said on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in 2010. "And I respect his privacy. I respect the fact that he loves to be out of the limelight. That's one of the reasons I think we've lasted so long."

Check out the full interview:

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