Strange Things About Kristen Bell And Dax Shepard's Marriage

It's been many years since Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard tied the knot in 2013, and they've been keeping fans updated on their relationship every step of the way — sometimes, a little too updated. 

For the most part, Bell and Shepard are total relationship goals; no matter what ups and downs they've faced over the years (including Shepard's ongoing struggle with sobriety), they've been willing to do the work to keep their relationship moving forward. And when it comes to the "real" side of their life together, they never shy away from the TMI in their Instagram posts. Don't expect any filters or FaceTune from these two!

Despite whatever obstacles they've faced as a couple, Shepard and Bell have managed to keep their marriage strong while they raise their daughters, Lincoln and Delta. That doesn't mean there aren't a few weird details about their love story, though... and this couple is more than happy to share those details every chance they get.

When most of the country was on lockdown and working from home at the beginning of 2020 — thanks to the novel coronavirus — the togetherness was a little much for a lot of couples who are used to spending more time apart, and Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard definitely fell into that category. According to what Bell told ET in April 2020, the quarantine struggle was real for these two, and they were "on each other's last nerve."

"I love spending time with him and he loves spending time with me but I think what is different about this quarantine time is you have so much more time to think about the other persona and their actions and sort of replay what they said or attach a meaning to something that they did and that I could do without," Bell said at the time. "Nobody really needs time for that. That's useless."

Eventually, they were able to find a way to laugh about the tension and find ways to spend time apart while they were stuck in the same house — but not even a couple who seems to have as laid back a relationship like this one was immune to the effects of spending too much time together.

Listeners of Dax Shepard's popular podcast, Armchair Expert, already know that Kristen Bell has been a guest... and that she and Shepard don't hold back when she comes on the show. One early episode of the podcast was ridiculously tense between the pair — they'd been arguing all day long, yet they wanted to be transparent for his listeners. That they did, and it ended up being a pretty uncomfortable episode for the first half... and it seems that's the least of their arguments.

In early 2020, Bell actually admitted on another podcast — this time, Life is Short With Justin Long — that she and Shepard had an "incredible" fight that included them screaming at each other at full volume. It started out as a calm disagreement about Shepard not doing things around the house that Bell had asked him to do. He told her he felt micromanaged by the notes she left him asking him to complete a few chores, and the whole thing devolved from there.

"Somehow, then we both blacked out and got into a fight, and I don't actually remember what happened, but what transpired was a lot of volume, a lot of harsh words being thrown around," she said. "I grabbed my pillow and stomped down the hall, and I sleep in the front room, and I'm crying. We don't talk for three days."

Eventually, they did work things out, but it definitely sounds like that was one of their messier fights. Yikes!

In September 2020, Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell shared a story (and photo) on Instagram that raised more than a few eyebrows. In a photo the former Parenthood star shared on his feed, he and Bell are in his car... and she's bent over a bottle that she happens to be urinating in. That's pretty gross in and of itself, but it gets worse: His car was actually brand new. Well, at least Shepard was wearing a mask at the time, but there's no saving that car.

"The most important part of this photo isn't that my bride @kristenanniebell is peeing in the car, it's that the car is 36 hours old!!!! So much disrespect that I almost have to respect it," he wrote in his caption.

Later, Bell explained herself in her Instagram Story (via Women's Health), saying that she doesn't "eff with public restrooms during a pandemic," but at that point, plenty of fans were pretty grossed out by the whole debacle.

Despite the fact that Dax Shepard has been open about his battle with addiction (including his 2020 relapse involving opiates), he still consumes non-alcoholic beer... and since it's available there in the fridge, apparently, he and Kristen Bell seem to see no issue with their daughters drinking it, too. And when Bell caught Lincoln and Delta sipping away on a bottle of O'Douls during their virtual Zoom learning, right in front of the teacher, she brushed it off as an embarrassing moment.

She confessed that this happened during an appearance on the Say Yes! With Carla Hall podcast, sharing that while she was a little worried about what the other parents and the teacher might think, ultimately, she doesn't mind her girls drinking non-alcoholic beer because it makes them "feel close" to their father. "If anything, it opens up the discussion for why daddy has to drink non-alcoholic beer," Bell said. "Because some people lose their privileges with drinking. Drinking's not always safe."

Every parent is certainly free to make their own choices about things like this involving their kids, but we wouldn't be surprised if Shepard and Bell experienced a little side-eye from their fellow moms and dads out there for this relaxed approach.

Given how open Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard are with their fans, it just makes sense that they also don't hold back when it comes to being honest with their daughters Lincoln and Delta — even about the more intimate stuff. During a 2020 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Bell admitted that even the topic of sex isn't off-limits, and they've let their kids know what it is, even if they haven't breached the subject much more than that. As Bell tells the story, she and Shepard were on their way out the door to have a little one-on-one time by taking a hike together when Lincoln asked them if they were going to "do a sex."

"Dax just really quickly said, 'We'd love to, but it's illegal publicly. Bye!' and closed the door," Bell explained to Colbert.

Hey, at least they're honest... even if it's a bit awkward for the rest of us to hear.

When it comes to sleep and bedtime routines for young kids, there are a lot of different views on what the "right" choice is... but Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell have definitely gone for one of the more controversial options, and apparently, they're not afraid to shout it from the rooftops. In 2018, Bell admitted that, in a desperate attempt to get Delta to sleep through the night when she hit a rough patch at three years old, she and Shepard actually turned the doorknob around and locked her daughter in her room.

"We lock it when she gets in there, and we stand outside and say, 'We love you, we will talk to you in the morning, but now, it's time for sleep.' And after about 10 minutes, she'll wind herself down," Bell explained to the press at a red carpet event for the IMAX documentary, PANDAS (via Parents). "And then, before we go to bed, obviously, we unlock it."

It could definitely get dangerous if there were an emergency, but at least they found something that works for them. After all, as Jodi Mindell, Ph.D., and associate director of the Sleep Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia told Parents, "Give [them] a chance to work it out for [themselves] and see if [they fall] back to sleep without your help."

Like many other breastfeeding moms, in 2018, Kristen Bell came down with an uncomfortable illness called mastitis, which happens when a milk duct is clogged and can cause pain, swelling, and even a fever, among other symptoms. And as she said on The Ellen Show's web series, Momsplaining, she was in Atlanta and unable to get to a doctor, so she required her husband's help to "suck" the clog out of her breast, which he did (willingly, it seems).

"He pulled it out," she said on the series. "He had a cup next to him. He was pulling out and spitting into this cup, and I've never been more in love. In my life."

At least Dax Shepard was able to save his wife from a condition that can be extremely painful — something that could have definitely gotten worse if he hadn't come to Bell's rescue the way he did. It just goes to show there's nothing these two won't do for each other (and then tell the whole world about ASAP).

Though many people who have struggled with addiction in the past choose to remove themselves from any situation where substances are present, that doesn't seem to be the case for Dax Shepard... at least, not according to his wife's behavior around him at home.

As Fatherly reported, quite the controversy broke out in 2018 when Kristen Bell went on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast and admitted that she does smoke pot in the comfort of her own home (after the kids have gone to bed, of course), and she does so openly in front of Shepard. She faced a little backlash for that confession, but as always, Shepard came to her defense.

"That would be like a diabetic expecting their partner to never eat dessert. Get real!" Shepard tweeted, admitting in another tweet that while pot was one thing, he wouldn't want Bell to "do lines" of cocaine in front of him because that's where he'd draw the line. Uh.. okay. 

Though (at least, as far as we know) Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard have been monogamous for their entire relationship, there's a chance that could change in the future — after all, Shepard's been in an open relationship before, and cheating rumors have plagued the pair. And in an interview with YOU Magazine in 2018, Bell admitted that monogamy can be "tough" when they naturally have wandering eyes, so it sounds like opening up their marriage might not necessarily be off the table in the future.

"I see the benefits of a society with monogamous relationships, but it's difficult because you're still attracted to other people," she said. "Dax was in an open relationship in his 20s and it scared me when we first started dating. We don't have one and I don't know if we ever will."

If it works for their relationship, that's all that matters, despite what anyone else might think. If it makes sense for them down the line, awesome... but it sounds like it might be something that Shepard is definitely into more than Bell is.

One of the very first things that shot Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell to the #RelationshipGoals hall of fame? The music video they made to Toto's song "Africa" and shared on YouTube while they were actually in Africa in 2016. While they looked adorable, Bell didn't hold back in saying that it wasn't proof that they were actually #RelationshipGoals during an interview with Bustle that same year. In fact, at the time, she said that their relationship was anything but "utter bliss."

"We make funny videos like 'Africa' ... but we also go to couple's therapy because we disagree on 99.9 percent of issues," she said at the time. "There are days when I'm completely sick of him, and there are days when he is completely sick of me. But we've chosen to love one another and to be a team. We've learned how to communicate and argue in a really healthy, respectful way."

She went on to say that she felt it was her "personal responsibility" to be realistic about her relationship to outsiders. "I need to remind people that you don't just find one person and then it's all peaches and cream for the rest of your life," she added. "Marriage and a relationship is hard work, and it's a lot of compromise. But if you compromise a lot, it's worth it, and you'll be able to make African vacation music videos."