Dolly Parton has revealed the secret to keeping her marriage to Carl Dean so strong after 56 years – and it’s that they refuse to argue.

Dolly Parton and Carl Dean are just as happy 56 years later (Picture: dollypartonbackgrid )

The couple will celebrate their 56th anniversary this year and while Carl generally likes to stay out of the limelight, Dolly revealed that the couple are pretty similar in personality.

She opened up about their relationship in a new interview with Hollywood Life, revealing that the pair promised ‘years ago’ not to fight about silly things.

Dolly, 76, explained: ‘You don’t want to start fighting. We made a rule years ago that we’d never argue because once you start that, it can become a habit, and that just goes on.

‘So, if there are times that things get a little tense, or we get a little sideways here and there, we just kind of walk off and come back later and make some joke.’

The country music legend admitted that love wasn’t just ‘trust and bliss’ but ‘other things as well,’ but the couple get through it all with humour rather than point scoring in an argument.

Dolly and Carl refuse to argue over the little things (Picture: Dolly Parton/Instagram)

She added: ‘We’re good friends. We have a good time. We have a lot of respect for each other, but we’re just good partners.

‘We are very compatible — we both like the temperature the same way in the house. There’s a lot of things that other couples fight over, like the air conditioner or the heat, or any of that kind of stuff.

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‘We never did because we’re just very compatible in how we live, with our routines. So, it’s actually worked out really well for us.’