Dolly Parton has been married for 55 years now, so I think it’s safe to say she has some decent advice when it comes to relationships. I mean hell, most celebrity marriages are lucky if they make it two years.
Though her decades-long marriage has been kept super private on purpose, she always talks so fondly of Carl Dean and has given some great advice on how they’ve kept it together for so long.
Of course, doing things like recreating her iconic 1978 Playboy magazine cover for his birthday probably helps, but she also has some more practical advice on the matter, too.
They actually met on one of her first days in Nashville while she was on a walk waiting for her laundry to dry at the Wishy Washy laundromat, where she initially turned him down when he asked her on a date.
Though I’m sure there have been ups and downs like in any marriage, somehow, they’ve made it work. It almost seems impossible when you consider what a mega-star Dolly is, but she has some great advice on what’s made it last.
First of all, you have to have a sense of humor, she says:
“My husband and I always had a great friendship. We’re both funny, and we both have a great and warped sense of humor 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. 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.”
And, as the old sayings goes, she tends to agree that absence makes the heart grow fonder:
“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.”
She said they’ve rarely, if ever, even really fought because she doesn’t want to say something in the heat of the moment that she’ll end up regretting later.
I’m gonna need a little more elaboration on this one, Dolly:
“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.”
And, possibly her most important piece of advice, is this:
“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.”
Something tells me knowing how to handle girls like “Jolene” every now and then helps, too:
