Kristen Bell's Secret To Maintaining A Successful Marriage Is Super Simple

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard's fairytale romance is full of surprisingly normal insights. It all started back in 2008 when the future couple met at a mutual friend's birthday bash. They started dating shortly afterwards, and Dax popped the question in 2009. The happy couple welcomed their first daughter, Lincoln Bell Shepard, in March 2013, just a few months before Kristen walked down the aisle. They became parents for the second time in 2014 with the arrival of their younger daughter, Delta Bell Shepard. 

As the years went by, the celebrity couple's union remained rock solid as they collaborated on a handful of films and started a baby product brand called Hello Bello. During a 2023 chat with Entertainment Tonight, the "Good Place" star shared that she knew many people couldn't imagine collaborating with their spouse. However, the decision felt like a no-brainer to Kristen because it was an extension of her biggest secret to a happy marriage: "Common goals." The actor elaborated that she always tries to find new "common goals" to strengthen their relationship, so working together only brought them closer. 

Additionally, the "Veronica Mars" star argued that a "deep sense of respect" was essential for a happy union. Likewise, as Kristen proclaimed, "Understanding that your partner used to be a little person is the best thing you can do." Before they got into an argument, her husband would tell her he felt like his childhood self again, which led the entrepeneur to realize: "You're a little person that had trauma and triggers and it's not about me."

While speaking to Entertainment Tonight in 2022, Kristen Bell revealed another simple secret to her thriving marriage with Dax Shepard: "Stay vulnerable. [...] You've gotta be vulnerable — we have to be vulnerable when we don't want to be." Meanwhile, we discovered her husband's perspective on the key to their sweet relationship during his 2019 chat with PureWow. The "Punk'd" breakout detailed how they had gradually learned to handle conflict well by recognizing that even their petty fights stemmed from deeper problems they were not addressing. 

Shepard reached a point where little changes in his behavior, like even the way he was breathing, could help him to understand that he wasn't getting to the heart of the issue. Of course, he and Bell had to put in tons of hard work to figure out how to handle conflict more effectively. During a joint interview with Good Housekeeping, in 2015, the "Frozen" star confirmed that they were among the celebrity couples who went to therapy to work on themselves and were (rightfully) proud of it. Bell, for her part, learned how to better control her anger through their sessions. 

Meanwhile, Shepard took a page out of Malcolm Gladwell's book "Blink" by grasping that "contempt" was the enemy of a happy relationship, so he told his wife: "We should try hard to police ourselves about becoming contemptuous of each other. If I ever see you roll your eyes at me, we need to hit Pause and figure out what's going on."