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The key to a happy relationship? 8 celebrities share lessons on love

Plenty of famous couples taught us about lasting romance, even serving as role models with their own relationships.
/ Source: TODAY

Celebrity splits often dominate headlines, making it easy to overlook the many stars who do stay together.

In fact, there are plenty of famous couples who've taught us a thing or two about lasting romance, even serving as role models with their committed relationships. And we're always eager to listen when they share their secrets.

Here are eight love lessons from celebs that have inspired us.

1. Sometimes you just know

TODAY

When Alan Alda visited TODAY last week, he revealed that he and his wife of 58 years were brought together by a disastrous dessert — a rum cake that fell on the floor at a party both were attending. "Arlene and I were the only two people who went in with spoons and ate it off the floor," he said. "That's how you know. When two people eat a cake off the floor, that's it for life." Alda also had some advice for today's daters, advising, "All this matchmaking on the Internet, and they ask them questions — just toss a cake on the floor and see who goes for it."

2. Time is precious

White and husband Allen Ludden are seen at an International Broadcasting Awards dinner tribute to Mary Tyler Moore on March 19, 1974.
White and husband Allen Ludden are seen at an International Broadcasting Awards dinner tribute to Mary Tyler Moore on March 19, 1974.Getty Images

Betty White, now 93, told Oprah Winfrey in March that her greatest regret is waiting to accept the marriage proposal of Allen Ludden, her husband of 18 years, who died from stomach cancer in 1981. "I spent a whole year, wasted a whole year that Allen and I could have had together, saying, 'No, I wouldn't marry him. No, I won't. No, I won't leave California. No, I won't move to New York,'" she told Winfrey. "I wasted a whole year we could have had together." Touchingly, she added, "But we made it. We finally did."

3. Some arguments are OK

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson
Getty Images file

When Tom Hanks visited Ellen DeGeneres shortly after celebrating his 25th anniversary with wife Rita Wilson in 2013, he sweetly revealed, "I'm not one to suck up to the audience, but the only thing we ever argue about is who loves each other more…"

4. Make time for each other

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
(L-R) Kim Campbell and Singers Tim McGraw and Faith Hill attend the 87th Annual Academy Awards Governors Ball at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 22, 2015 in Hollywood, California.Getty Images file

Tim McGraw opened up about success of his longtime marriage to fellow country singer Faith Hill in a 2014 interview with E! News. "I think, for us, being as normal as possible and raising our family and being in a family situation as much as possible ... Certainly it's different because of what we both do, but we try to keep it as much of a family environment that we can," said McGraw, who has three daughters with Hill. "And most of the time... we try to make that the priority and the primary time that we spend. For us, we leave the front doors when we go to work, but when we're home, we don't talk about none of the music that much… It's a whole different world."

5. Never see yourself as "half" of a relationship

Kelly Clarkson and Brandon Blackstock
Kelly Clarkson and Brandon Blackstock attend Muhammad Ali's Celebrity Fight Night XXI at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa on March 28, 2015 in Phoenix, Arizona.Getty Images file

Kelly Clarkson recently told Redbook that her husband, Brandon Blackstock, "is not my other half." The singer elaborated, "He's a whole and I'm a whole. I've never believed in someone taking care of me, and that's probably because I grew up poor and without a lot of family stability."

6. Opposites attract

Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell
Actor Dax Shepard poses with actress Kristen Bell outside the FIJI Water tent during the 30th Annual Film Independent Spirit Awards at Santa Monica Beach on February 21, 2015 in Santa Monica, California.Getty Images file

"We're the Paula Abdul video 'Opposites Attract' personified," Kristen Bell recently told Good Housekeeping, discussing her marriage to Dax Shepard. For his part, Shepard added, "We have such different backgrounds, it's comical. Until I was 32, I thought the world was just wolves, that there was no way anyone was acting with any kind of benevolence. When I met her and her friends, I was suspicious of their unbridled happiness. I thought, 'Something stinks here; they're in a cult.' But slowly I began to see her positive way of looking at the world. She gives people the benefit of the doubt."

7. Have a common bond (and a sense of humor)

Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara
Actors/comedians Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara attend the 2012 Made In NY Awards at Gracie Mansion on June 4, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)Getty Images file

Jerry Stiller, who wed Anne Meara in 1954, told the New York Daily News, “Our marriage has lasted because we have the same feelings of insecurity about being an actor." Stiller added of the comedic duo, “We needed stability.”

8. Or, just ignore all of the above

Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon
Actress Kyra Sedgwick (L) and her husband actor Kevin Bacon pose at the Fox Winter TCA All-Star Party at the Langham Huntington Hotel on January 17, 2015 in Pasadena, California.Getty Images file

Discussing her 26-year marriage to Kevin Bacon on TODAY in 2014, Kyra Sedgwick said the secret to a long marriage was “not to take advice about marriage from celebrities.”