Dolly Parton: Heartbreak Behind Her New Children’s Album

Devastated Dolly Parton is masking her secret pain over never becoming a mother, said pals of the country legend — by making a children’s album!

Her upcoming Oct. 13 release, "I Believe in You," features 13 songs Dolly penned for the sandbox set — but the project sent the 71-year-old star through a whirlwind of difficult emotions, The National ENQUIRER learned through a friend.

“It was bittersweet for Dolly to make this record,” the confidant confessed, noting a partial hysterectomy in 1984 at age 38 dashed Dolly’s hopes of ever having a baby.

“Some songs, she thought about her little grandnieces and grandnephews, but sometimes ... she imagined she was writing a song for a child she never had. Not having a child to call her own is the one big hole in her heart.”

Dolly and husband Carl Dean, who married in 1966, were eager to have a family, and she admits, “We tried to for many years, then I put it on hold.” The bighearted country queen “kept putting off having children,” says the insider, “but still was intent on having a baby or two by 40. When that dream died, a part of Dolly died as well.”

But Dolly channeled her pain in 1997 by founding the Imagination Library, which has delivered more than 100 million books to kids in the U.S. Proceeds from the new album will benefit the charity’s continuing efforts.

“Dolly likes to think of all the world’s children as hers,” an insider says. “She often wonders about ... the joy she and Carl would have had, if they had made more time early on to start a family. Dolly says that’s its own kind of heartache, being left to wonder all her life.”