In the crazy world of Hollywood, it’s rare to find a marriage that is actually able to stand the test of time. That’s what makes it so unusual that the singer and actress Bette Midler has been married to her husband Martin von Haselberg for 37 years.

In a new interview with Closer Weekly, Midler opened up about her marriage, revealing how she “saved” it after some “bitter fights.”

“We used to fight bitterly,” admitted Midler, 75. She added that having their daughter Sophie helped them to get their priorities together in their marriage.

“We came to the conclusion that we wanted to raise a child. We never wanted to hurt that kid in any way,” she explained. “[So] we stayed together until it got better, and it did.”

“There was a conscious effort to create exactly the life we have,” added von Haselberg, a former performance artist who quit his job as a commodities trader to support Midler’s career and help raise their daughter.

“My husband is probably the greatest father who ever lived. He taught her a foreign language. He taught her how to cook,” Midler said. “He has looked after me for many, many years. He’s sacrificed a lot.”

“Listening is very hard. And compromise. Compromise is the hardest of all,” she confessed. “The blaming, I think, is the worst part. It’s because you don’t want to carry the burden yourself. You want to push it off on someone else. But honestly, you have to learn not to do that.”

In the end, Midler is grateful that she and her husband persevered through the difficult moments in their marriage.

“I think it’s [about] perseverance,” she said. “Continuing to put one foot in front of the other.”

These days, Midler and her husband are loving the life that they’ve created for themselves.

“We look back [at the difficult times] and wipe our brows and say, ‘What the hell was that?’” Midler said.

Though she has learned plenty about marriage over the years, Midler doesn’t want to preach about it to her daughter Sophie, who just got married last year.

“I think the best thing to do if you are a mother-in-law is to back off and let them have their lives and realize that you are not living their life,” she says. “You don’t have all the answers. It’s up to them to find their own life a d the answers.”