Los Angeles, Dec 24 (IANS): Singer Dolly Parton has been wed to Carl Thomas Dean since 1966 but said that she always made sure her career was top priority and she doesn't think she would have been able to do that if she had become a mother.

"I haven't missed (having kids) like I thought I would. When you're a young couple, you think you're going to have kids, but it just wasn't one of those burning things for me. I had my career and my music and I was travelling," she told Saga Exceptional magazine.

The "Jolene" hitmaker went on to add that had she chosen to have children she would have spent her life "worrying" about what might happen to them and insisted she would "hate" to bring a child into the world right now in its current state, reports aceshowbiz.com.

She added: "If I'd had kids, I'd have stayed home with them, I'm sure, and worried myself to death about them. With everything that's going on, I'd hate to be bringing a child into this world right now."

Meanwhile, the "9 to 5" star is known for her excessive use of cosmetic surgery to retain her youthful looks and insisted she will always have work done if she notices something is "bagging, sagging or dragging" but does occasionally have the odd setback as a result of a procedure that means she has to stay away from the cameras for a short amount of time.

She said, "If something is bagging, sagging or dragging, I'll tuck it, suck it or pluck it. Every now and then you'll get a haematoma, or sometimes with fillers and Botox you can get too much and have to wait till the swelling goes down to look normal again. It means that instead of being back at work in two weeks, it's a month."