Country singer Dolly Parton shares her expert marriage advice
Country music legend, Dolly Parton, has opened up about her 54-year marriage to husband, Carl Dean, sharing some words of wisdom for anyone who's love story has just started.
In the interview shared with People, the 74-year-old talks about what has made her relationship so strong, that it has lasted all of these years. "My husband and I always had a great friendship," Dolly prefaced. "We're both funny, and we both have a great and warped sense of humour so we've always had a good time. He's pretty much a loner and a homebody, and I'm a gypsy. But when I'm home, I love that."
Dolly went on to explain, "We don't do the same thing so it gives us different stuff to talk about. He doesn't get involved in my business, and I don't in his, so we have our own little world that we create for ourselves."
"I've always made jokes that the reason our marriage has lasted so long is because I stay gone. Well, there's a lot of truth in that. We're not in each other's face all the time. I think there's a lot to be said about having some sensible separation because you can't be with somebody 24/7, 365 and not want to smack their face now and then," Dolly jokes.
The country singer went on to explain that throughout her and Dean's relationship, they've never really fought. "We've never bickered back and forth because I never wanted us to say bad things that we would have to remember. We get a little pissy now and then, but we'll just kind of walk off or go do something else and let that die down."
"You have to work at anything. Marriage is a business too, and you got to look at it like that. You got to make the right decisions for all the little things that come up."
While it's been quite a long time since Dolly and Carl were newlyweds, she remembers that time with great fondness, but also recalls how challenging it can be in that very first year of marriage.
"You are trying to figure each other out and learn. That's the year that you get the most rubbed wrong only because you're having to share space with somebody you've never had to share your space with before. Your habits are different than theirs so you got to work those little things out," she advises.
"It's best just to go to the other room rather than getting in a big old argument about it, cool off and know they're just as entitled to their opinion and their space as you are yours. So if you can think of it like that, and just know that when you both feel like you can calm down and talk about it, that's where the love is supposed to come in and the understanding…Then if you get that worked out, smack him across the head."
