Dolly Parton reveals the secret to her almost 60-year marriage

Dolly Parton has been married for almost 60 years and the superstar has now revealed the secrets of her long-term love affair.

The hit singer and her husband Carl Dean met at a Nashville laundromat in 1964 and married two years later.

Speaking on Zoe Ball’s Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Thursday, Dolly, 77, made it clear why their marriage has lasted.

“We’ve been together for 59 (years), we dated for two years, and then we just celebrated our 57th anniversary on May 30,” she told Zoe.

“But I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we are honest and open and have a twisted sense of humor!”

“He’s crazy, he’s so funny and smart. And I have a great sense of humor on both sides of my family, so I think humor has always been good.

She went on to say that mutual “love and respect” has always been the foundation of their romance.

“There is respect and love and I like it!”

“You know, I would have loved him if he hadn’t been my husband, if he had been someone else’s husband. I say, ‘You know, Carl Dean, isn’t he not funny ? Isn’t he a good guy?”, so I think it’s just that mutual respect and we just love each other.

Dolly said she really valued her husband’s opinion, but he never gave her an honest answer “in a cruel way.”

“If I ask him if he likes my hair – ‘too stringy for me’ or ‘it looks too big’ – you know, if it’s too straight… he always calls it that, “this seems too important”, but I know that if I ask him – he won’t do it willingly – but if I ask him, he will tell me the truth.

Zoe was eager to know what her very honest husband thought of her new album.

“To be honest, I was a little nervous,” Dolly confessed after performing for him.

“When I finished the whole album, he said, ‘This is really good.’ And to me it would be like someone else jumping up and down and putting stars on the wall or something like that.

“But for him to just say it’s good, it’s really good, that meant everything to me.”

The singer’s wife is known for staying out of the public eye, although she has shared several photos of him on her social media in the past.

In October last year, the country icon shocked fans when she announced her retirement from touring, saying: “I don’t think I’ll ever tour again.”

This came as a surprise to many, as she had once said that she would “rather die on stage” than retire.

However, even though the 77-year-old country music legend insisted she would never completely give up her work, she said Good Housekeeping that she doesn’t want to leave her husband of over five decades alone for long periods of time.

The hit singer, who recently opened up about her eclectic sense of style, told the outlet: “I don’t tour anymore. I have so many professional things to do. And my husband and I are getting older…and I kind of need to be with him.