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Take that, Miley Cyrus. Married sex gets better the longer we're married

Miley Cyrus, listen up. Our sex lives in the golden years can be golden.
/ Source: TODAY

Miley Cyrus, listen up. Our sex lives in the golden years can be golden.

As discussed on TODAY’s trending segment Tuesday, a study found once couples pass their 50th wedding anniversary, they reported a slight increase in their sex lives and that couples married for 65 years reported more sex than those married for 50 years.

Researchers noted “that an individual married for 50 years will have somewhat less sex than an individual married for 65 years,” The New York Times noted.

Even so, it’s a far cry from the rumors about the end of sex that Miley Cyrus discussed on TODAY with Matt Lauer in 2013.

“I heard when you turn 40, things start to go a little less sexual,” Cyrus told Lauer. “Probably around 40, around that time, I heard that’s when people don’t have sex any more.”

Lauer felt vindicated with news of the study.

“I finally have definitive proof that Miley Cyrus was wrong,” he joked Tuesday.

The study of 1,656 married men and women ages 57 to 87, was published in January’s Archives of Sexual Behavior. The data comes from the 2005 - 2006 National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, a comprehensive study of sexual attitudes and behavior among older Americans.

When it comes to sex and midlife, TODAY knows that the party isn’t completely over.

Just over one-third of people in their 50s, both married and single, reported having sex a few times a week or month, a 2014 TODAY survey found. By comparison, 43 percent of 40-somethings said they had sex once a week.

Nearly 25 percent of people in their 50s reported having no sex ever, compared to 17 percent of those in their 40s, according to the online survey of more than 1,400 adults, ages 45-69. But of the sex they're having, 45 percent say they are quite satisfied with their sex lives, thank you very much.

Lisa A. Flam is a news and lifestyles reporter in New York. Follow her on Twitter.