Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard are well known as one of the most relatable couples in Hollywood. They often share hilarious parenting moments with their two daughters, like this video of Bell listening to her husband talk about the middle finger. Or the time the kids walked in on them having sex.
But anyone who’s ever been in a long-term relationship, let alone a marriage, knows that it’s not all sunshine and roses. Bell recently opened up about one of the couple’s fights and why they’re so up-front about their relationship—and, honestly, it makes them even more endearing, if you can imagine that.
“Something happened with Dax and I early on where we decided we were never going to not be asked about our relationship,” Bell told fellow actor Justin Long on his podcast, according to People. “So if we were going to talk about it, let’s make sure we show the good, the bad, and the ugly and how we handle it. Let’s not make it saccharine, and we really try hard to not make it saccharine, and we talk about the fact that we do fight, we do go to therapy, we dislike each other a lot sometimes.”
The fight in question began simply enough, over stuff that needed to get done around the house. “It was about the things around the house that I felt I needed help with. We have a relationship where you are supposed to be able to say, ‘I need your help with this,’” she said. “For those of you listening, I’m telling this from my perspective. He’s not here; he can’t defend himself.
“I left a note and I was like, ‘Hey dad! Would you mind taking the two towels in the dryer and folding them’ and then, like, one other thing. I thought, That’s 10 minutes of work, I can say that,” she continued. “At that point the house [work] was getting to be a lot for me. The keeping up with the mom stuff, the shoes being outgrown, all of that. So I left this note and I came home on Sunday—everything was fine. Monday night we’re laying in bed and…he goes, ‘When you leave me notes, yeah, I feel really controlled,’ and he launched into how he felt about it.”
The Good Place actor says she took a beat. “And I said, ‘Okay, I totally hear you. It will never happen again. If I need something to be done around the house, what is a way I can do it that you’d be okay with hearing?’” But the calm emotions did not prevail.
