Marriage takes a lot of work, but especially when your lives are the focus of the public eye, like country star Carrie Underwood and her NHL husband Mike Fisher. They've shared a few of their secrets to a happy marriage, and one of them involves ... not being together.

Fisher tells Us Weekly that when Underwood is super busy — like preparing for her next album — he does something kind of funny. "I stay out of her way. I go golfing or go fishing or something," he laughingly admits.

Underwood confirms his actions, explaining, "He stays away. That whole creative process is such a weird thing, and I've talked to other people in the music business and friends and what they do and we all kind of have our own 'isms."

So, while Fisher gives his gorgeous wife plenty of space for her creative process, she chugs coffee and stays hyper focused ... until she gets home. "I go in and I'm like caffeinated. I get jacked up on caffeine and then I come home and crash," she jokes.

In addition to Fisher giving Underwood space during her creative process, they've also had to learn how to navigate another obstacle in their marriage: her love for animals and his love for killing them. At a conference in Nashville last year, she delved into the issue saying, "Well, I'm an animal lover and he's a hunter" (quote via Christian Post).

And while Underwood loves animals, volunteering at and even funding animal shelters, and eating a vegan diet, being out in the woods hunting is a spiritual experience for Fisher, and one that's very important to him. So, the couple has learned the tricky art of compromise, avoiding meat from large-scale farms, and only serving what Fisher kills.

The singer and her hubby have been married since July 10, 2010. They welcomed their first child — a boy, Isaiah — in February.

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