Billy Ray, the father of Dolly’s goddaughter Miley, had decades of memories with her, but one of their final private exchanges now carries a completely different weight.

As we previously reported, the bond between Dolly and Miley went far deeper than a celebrity friendship — Dolly, who never had children of her own, had poured that love into her goddaughter from the very beginning.

The country music legend was married to her husband, Carl Thomas Dean, for nearly 59 years. The two, who tied the knot on May 30, 1966, had no kids. Dolly opened up about why she never had kids.

In 1982, the singer experienced painful abdominal bleeding that forced her to seek medical help and cancel a tour. Again, in 1984, she went through a partial hysterectomy and was told she would never be able to have kids.

This news put the singer into a two-year depression and pushed her into scaling down her professional commitments. She admitted that the period was a horrible time for her but that she viewed it as a message from God, who was telling her to slow down so that she could deal with the stuff in her life.