Dolly Parton wants the royal family to visit Dollywood.

The 78-year-old country music legend took over the Tennessee-based theme park in 1986 and is keen for Prince William, his wife Catherine, Princess of Wales, and their children Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and six-year-old Prince Louis, to fly out to see her.

She told Britain's Closer magazine: "Oh, I would absolutely love for them to come to Dollywood, that would be fantastic! The kids could go on all the rides and we would treat them like royalty!

"I’d give Kate my mashed potatoes – I wouldn’t put on any airs for them. I would just let them enjoy what we enjoy, and I’m sure that’s the way they would want it. I would love to have those kids at Dollywood."

Previously, Catherine was keen to meet the 'Jolene' hitmaker when she was on a press tour in London, but Dolly regretfully had to turn the invitation down because she was too busy.

She told Saga Exceptional magazine: "I only had one full day and I did not have a second to do anything else besides work. But make sure people know I didn’t turn the invitation down. I was honoured and flattered that she even asked me."

Dolly felt "so bad" to have to say no to the Princess of Wales but knew that their meeting was not going to serve any purpose in terms of promoting her album and is hopeful that the invite may come again at some point in the future.

Speaking to Claudia Winkleman on BBC Radio 2, she said: “This time, Lordy, I even got invited to have tea with Kate.

“And I felt so bad… I couldn’t even go! They had all this stuff set up. Dolly continued: “And one of these days I’m going to get to do that… That would be great. She [Catherine] wasn’t going to promote my rock album, so I had to say no."