Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard have never been exactly shy about sharing the intimate details of their marriage with the public. And now, thanks to yet another episode of Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, we know a little more about what gets Bell's heart racing.
Apparently, it's watching her husband compliment other people's appearances. The revelation came during the Oct. 26 episode of Armchair Expert, which featured Bell alongside her Nobody Wants This costars Adam Brody, Justine Lupe, and Timothy Simons.
While discussing the art of giving compliments, Bell explained that she can tell when Shepard is flirting with her...because he's directing his attention at someone else.
"If we go to a dinner or something, like, there's a couple things Dax does where he doesn't have to look up and wink at me, but I know that he's just being the best boy," she says.
"We'll be at dinner, and, like, he'll say to the waiter or waitress, he'll go, 'Wow, you have incredible eyelashes, gorgeous eyes, great job.'"
"That's flirting with her!" podcast cohost Monica Padman points out. "But that's flirting with me, because—" at this point, Brody briefly interrupts her smiling, "Because?"
"Because he just made someone else feel good," Bell continues. She explains that she doesn't feel threatened by these interactions because Shepard is unlikely to see the person ever again. "'Cause he's gonna have zero interaction with — let's say it is a girl. He's gonna have zero interaction with this girl for the rest of his life. The chances of him ever having another conversation with her are so microscopic," she says.
For her, the appeal is knowing that her husband is the kind of person who goes out of his way to make strangers feel good about themselves. "But to me, to know that my partner actively smiles at people and gives them compliments."
"You'll pull out a feature...that's how I know you're flirting with me, a lot," says Bell.
In fact, she says watching him smile and compliment people actually turns her on. According to Bell, Shepard has never crossed a line or made her feel uncomfortable. "You've never done anything that's felt even borderline...you, like, you'll point out someone has great eyebrows, or great cheekbones..."
She also recalled a time when he complimented their friend Heather Taylor's eyebrows, telling her they were the best he'd ever seen. Shepard explained that he had noticed something nobody had commented on. "That's why it makes me fluttery inside. That's why it gives me butterflies," Bell explains.
"Because everyone saw it, he's the only one that said it, maybe she hadn't had a compliment today. And I'm with the guy that's pouring compliments on people? Making people feel good?"
Shepard, meanwhile, clarified that he does have some boundaries when it comes to compliments about appearance: Lips are off limits.
Incidentally, one Reddit user pointed out that there is a scene in the new season of Nobody Wants This in which Bell's sister's character, played by Lupe, "is offering an example of why her ex was terrible — the example is that they went out to dinner and her husband at the time told the waitress she had beautiful lips."
Of course, anyone familiar with Bell and Shepard's relationship dynamic over the years knows that the pair has a habit of sharing details about their marriage that fuel internet discourse. Last October, for example, Bell caught flak for making light of domestic violence with an anniversary tribute in which she recalled Shepard joking that he would never kill her despite being "heavily incentivized" to do so.
And earlier this year, Cher made headlines when she told Shepard to his face that she thought Bell could do better than him. "The truth is, I trust her," Cher told Shepard on an episode of his podcast after he asked who her dream partner choice for Bell would be. "So you must have something that I don't see."
Their relationship even became a talking point in a February essay published by the Cut titled "I Love My Husband (Who Hates Me)," which examined women who publicly defended their partner's questionable behavior, with several friends of the couple pushing back against the criticism, including Monica Padman and Justine Lupe.
Shepard himself has addressed the speculation about their marriage, insisting in April that Bell has complete autonomy in their relationship.
All of this is to say, it's unsurprising that this latest "revelation" has inspired another round of feedback online, with one user on X writing, "I’ve never wanted two people to divorce so badly" and another adding, "there's no way a normal person hears this and isn't begging her to file for divorce."
There were many requests, actually, to "keep us out of it."
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