Courtney B. Vance on nearly 30-year marriage to Angela Bassett

Courtney B. Vance is spilling the beans on the secret to his nearly three-decades-long marriage to Angela Bassett.

The actor, 65, attended the world premiere of his new movie Lilo & Stitch at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles this Saturday.

During an exchange with the press, Vance revealed that the secret ingredient to his long-lasting marriage is simply abiding by the "happy wife, happy life" adage.

“It’s really about when my wife is happy, the land is happy,” Vance told People Magazine. “So I just try to [go], ‘Does this work for you, baby?’ It doesn't work… we're not doing that.”

“And I think it's the mutual respect,” he added, while also emphasising the importance of each person in the partnership communicating their authentic thoughts and feelings about any potential big decisions.

“You gotta talk about [it] and figure out which way… [you] want to go.”

Vance and Bassett, 66, initially met as graduate students at Yale’s drama school in the early '80s but linked up romantically only years later after running into each other in New York City.

"I didn't run into Courtney again until 1994," Bassett told Oprah Winfrey during a 2007 interview. "I was out with some friends and he was too. It was like, 'Hey! Great to see you.'"

The pair married in 1997 and welcomed fraternal twins, Bronwyn Golden and Slater Josiah, in 2006.