Although Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin are rarely seen in public together, Paltrow has no qualms dishing on her 8-year-and-counting marriage to the Coldplay frontman.
In the latest issue of Harper's Bazaar, the 39-year-old actress opens up about how she keeps her marriage alive -- despite her and Martin's busy careers.
"I want to maintain my marriage and my family, so I have to be here when he comes home," Paltrow told the magazine. "All I can do is my best, and I can do only what works for me and my family."
Paltrow revealed that she believes compromise is paramount to a relationship. The actress told Harper's Bazaar that she recently gave a close friend some practical advice: "I said this may not be feminist, but you have to compromise. It's been all about you and you're a big deal. And if you want what you're saying you want -- a family -- you have to be a wife, and that is part of the equation."
The actress also spoke frankly about the ups and downs of marriage: "I think you do fall in and out of love and you just keep going," she told the magazine. "And every time you go through a really difficult phase, you rediscover something new and it just gets better. We've been married for more than eight years now, and we're still into it."
The couple seems to be opening up more about their marriage in recent years. In October 2011, Martin told "CBS Sunday Morning" that he's only had one serious relationship (to his wife, of course), and compared his marriage to Paltrow to "winning the lottery." And when false rumors of a split emerged last year, Paltrow quickly defended her relationship in the September issue of Elle: "Sometimes it's hard being with someone for a long time... I'm not going to take this for granted," she said.
Paltrow and Martin met in 2002 and tied the knot the following year. The couple have two children together, 7-year-old Apple and 5-year-old Moses.