Despite her 46-year marriage to a man country music superstar and camp icon Dolly Parton has continually refuted lesbian rumors about her and her childhood friend Judy Ogle. Now, Dolly explains in an interview with Nightline that the rumors helped her bond with another woman at the center of lesbian rumors–-Oprah Winfrey, whose friendship with Gayle King has provided much tabloid fodder over the years.
"Like Gayle, her friend, Judy, my friend, they just think that you just can't be that close to somebody,” Dolly tells Nightline, according to ABC News. “Judy and I have been best friends since we were like in the third and fourth grade… We still just have a great friendship and relationship and I love her as much as I love anybody in the whole world, but we're not romantically involved."
In the Nightline interview Dolly also touches on her status as a drag icon and discusses her devotion to her LGBT fans and the community at large even in the face of threats from groups like Ku Klux Klan over the “Gay Day” she hosts at her theme park Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
"When it first started there were people giving us threats, I still get threats," Dolly says. "But like I said, I'm in business. I just don't feel like I have to explain myself. I love everybody."
And we love Dolly! Tune into the full interview on Nightline at 11:35 tonight.
Image via Getty.
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