Christine Baranski says she bonded with Dolly Parton over partners’ illnesses: ‘We had some beautiful conversations’

Christine Baranski has opened up about her friendship with Dolly Parton, weeks after the country music icon’s death at the age of 80. The Good Wife star Baranski opened up about her interactions with Parton in a new interview in The Telegraph, which happened to be conducted on the day of Parton’s death, shortly after the news broke. Baranski rose to fame on the 1980s sitcom Cybill, later starring in TV series such as The Good Wife, The Good Fight, and The Gilded Age, as well as films including Mamma Mia!.

She can next be seen on stage in London, opposite Richard E Grant in the Noël Coward comedy Hay Fever. Not that level of poverty, but he decided to be Noël Coward. And we still think of him in a silk robe, the cigarette, the witty bon mot.” Towards the end of the interview, conversation again turned to Parton, with Baranski revealing that she and Parton had connected over the shared experience of watching a partner experience serious illness.

Parton was married to Carl Thomas Dean for 59 years, until his death in 2025, with Parton explaining that he had been “ill for quite a while”. Baranski was married to the actor Matthew Cowles from 1983 to 2014, when he died of heart failure. And if you’re a performer,” said Baranski.

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And when I met Dolly, I told her about Matthew and his illness and what a challenge it was when you’re watching someone you love just get weaker and weaker, and how torn you are being a working woman. It’s so weird,” she said. And I worried about my concentration, my ability to just focus.” Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies