Kristen Bell seems to be doing this whole celebrity marriage thing right.
The “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” star has been married to fellow actor Dax Shepard for over a decade. While the job frequently requires them to simulate relationships with other people, Bell revealed the secret to her happy marriage Monday in two little words.
“Foundational trust,” she told E! News. “Even if Dax hooks up with the most beautiful person in the world at work, I know he’s committed to our family. I know he’s coming home. I know he loves our children. I know he strives to be a good husband and father.”
Bell met Shepard in the mid-2000s when he was best known as Ashton Kutcher’s right-hand man on the MTV prank show “Punk’d.” She was wooed in a rather intimate way, and after tying the knot in 2013, she gave birth to their children: Lincoln, 11, and Delta, 9.
Bell said Monday that she and Shepard have since developed “very open communication.” This allows them to vocalize their feelings and potential physical urges without blaming each other, which often comes in handy.
“We’re just human, right?” Bell told E! News. “So maybe there could be a day where I’m like, ‘I’m actually really nervous that you spend time with that person.’ And he could say, ‘Oh, OK, let’s talk about it. What makes you nervous? What are you thinking?’”
Bell said on Monday that they “root for each other,” even when Shepard “got to make out with Minka Kelly” on NBC’s “Parenthood.”
“I was like, ‘Yes. Get it,’” she told the outlet. “We’re married, we’re not dead.”
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Bell said that scenario occurred last year when she starred as Adam Brody’s love interest in the Netflix series “Nobody Wants This.” Despite the required sex scenes, Shepard wasn’t worried because he trusted her.
“Dax also knows there’s no real threat there because Adam and I, if you were to see us in person, there is no chemistry,” she told E! News. “We bicker all the time. We’re like an old granny and grampy. It’s not hot and heavy on set at all.”
While they’ve previously shared some opinions that likely aren’t universal, Bell and Shepard appear to have found their own groove as parents, friends and lovers — even when their seemingly stellar communication prompts rather hilarious confusion from others.