What’s the Secret? Dolly Parton and More Stars’ Advice for Having a Happy Marriage

Dolly Parton and Carl Thomas Dean

Dolly and her husband, Carl Thomas Dean, have managed to stay married for more than five decades because of their humor. “He makes me laugh all the time,” the singer told Closer in October 2019. “We both have a warped sense of humor. It is one of the things that has kept us together all of this time.”

Mitzi Gaynor and Jack Bean

Mitzi Gaynor and Jack Bean keep their love life strong because they make time for each other. “Well, we were never apart,” Mitzie explained to Closer in September 2019. “He traveled with me. The only time we were apart is if he had to go to the office. And that’s it! That’s the way you keep it going.”

Ed Begley Jr. and Rachelle Carson

Ed Begley Jr. believes it’s important for a couple to laugh together every now and then. “Rachelle [Carson] and I laugh regularly,” he revealed to Closer in October 2019. “Absolute honesty is key. I was married once before, and I wasn’t as mature as I am now, so I’ve been doing a better job.”

Emily Blunt and John Krasinski

In an interview with E! News, John Krasinski said he and wife Emily have been married for so long because they support each other.

“It’s one of those things where I was a huge fan of hers before I even met her, so I continue to be a huge fan of her’s in everything she does,” he said. “So we’re just extremely supportive, we get what the job is and that you gotta travel and do some stuff, but it’s always about coming back home and being together, it’s the most important thing.”

Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan

“Just give each other the benefit of the doubt. He assumes I’m doing the best I can,” Tracy Pollan once told People of how they’ve stuck together for three decades.” Michael added, “Find the best things about you and the best things about life and celebrate them.”

The couple also pointed to their upbringing. “Big families, middle children,” the Back to the Future star told the outlet. “Sense of humor. Both our families had that.”

Jay and Mavis Leno

“Not screwing around is a huge key. You can do a lot. You can leave your underwear on the doorknob for all you want if you don’t screw around,” the former Tonight Show host joked to People before getting very serious and revealing a tip to maintaining a long relationship. “I always tell guys when they meet a woman: ‘Marry your conscience. Marry someone who you wish you could be and it works out OK.’”

Jerry O’Connell and Rebecca Romijn

“Have twins, and as they get older and become more diabolical, you can’t get divorced!” Jerry exclusively joked to Closer in March 2019. Talk about getting right to the point!

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr.

“Communicate. That’s the key. It’s about being present,” the actress revealed to Us Weekly. “Listening is the most important thing.”

“We still make each other laugh. And we treat each other with respect,” Freddie added.

Julianne Moore and Bart Freundlich

“Make time.” That was what Julianne told People is the secret to her marriage to her husband. “We have this narrative in our culture that if you want a career, you have to work hard, go to school, look for a job, you have to apply yourself but love is supposed to just happen to you,” she explained to the outlet.

“One day you’re going to meet someone and get hit over the head and boom! That happens in romantic comedies but in real life you have to make time,” she added. “When you find a person, you have to invest in them and that relationship. And that’s what love is.”

Ina and Jeffrey Garten

How has the Barefoot Contessa star and her husband been married for more 50 years? “Chicken always helps,” Ina Garten joked to Today, and added during a previous interview, “The best way you can express love by cooking for someone is, figure out what they like and make it for them. And they’ll feel really good!”

Ina also noted this secret: “I think you marry someone who thinks you’re the most important thing in the world, and you think he’s the most important thing in the world. It’s that simple, isn’t it? People make it so complicated.”

Valeri and Candace Cameron-Bure

“I always say, put your spouse on a pedestal,” Fuller House alum Candace Cameron Bure told Us Weekly of keeping a long marriage. “And in return, you’re hoping, which my husband does, we have the same respect for one another other … and some days neither of us deserve it, but we do it because we honor one another and respect each other.”

Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott

“Finding those moments in the crazy-busy day to make eye contact, to kiss, to say ‘I love you,’ to touch in some form, I just feel like that’s really important,” Dean McDermott gushed to Us Weekly.

Tori Spelling chimed in with, “If you go through your busy life — we’re working, we have kids — if you don’t take a moment, you’ll realize the entire day is gone, and you haven’t had that moment together and then it’s over. So we make sure we do that on a daily basis now.”

The Beverly Hills, 90210 actress added that it is also important to communicate.

Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedwick

“There is no secret,” Footloose actor Kevin Bacon told Fox News in January 2019. “In fact, I’ve often had a couple of different one-liners for that answer, and then I decided that really the answer is I’m not going to answer it because the last thing I want to do is come up with some quote that is going to summarize a 30-year relationship you know?”

He added, “It’s disrespectful to the relationship. So I don’t really know.”