Los Angles, Aug 19 (IANS): Singer Dolly Parton says that the secret of her 50-year-old marriage is distance.

The 70-year-old singer tied the knot with businessman Carl Thomas Dean in 1966 and joked that being on the road for her career has helped their marriage survive, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"Yeah, stay gone! We've been married for 50 years and I've been gone for about 47 of those. But the truth is, we've always been very compatible. To those that follow the signs, I'm a Capricorn and he's Cancer, and those are very compatible signs,” Vanity Fair magazine quoted Parton as saying.

“But we've always had a good time together, and he's got a great sense of humour and so do I. And he loves staying home and I love staying gone, so it's worked out really well,” she added.

Parton also shared her belief that the couple have become even more compatible as they have gotten older.

"Well, it's just grown deeper. The longer you live with somebody, the more you know them, and you take on all their traits as well as them taking all of yours. And you just have a deeper and better understanding - more of an appreciation,” the eight times Grammy Award winner said.

“But we've always had a great respect for each other, and I think that's been the thing that really and truly sustained us through the years,” she added.