It’s impossible not to love them. Their adorable Samsung commercials make you feel like a part of their family and inner circle. Their careers have both really taken off in the past couple of years and they’ve been there to support one another through it all. Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard give us major relationship envy.
The pair met in 2007 at a birthday party of a mutual friend and began dating soon after. They dated for three years before becoming engaged in 2010 but decided to wait to get married until California legalized same-sex marriage. The pair married in 2013.
The key to their relationship is therapy.
The couple made news recently by announcing they keep their relationship strong by going to couples therapy. Many think of therapy as a last ditch effort, but the pair insists that is not the case. In a recent interview with Good Housekeeping, Dax and Kristen said they’ve been seeing a therapist for years.
“There were hurdles, things she didn’t trust about me, things I didn’t trust about her,” Dax said. “I just kept going back to ‘This person has the thing I want, and I have to figure out how we can exist peacefully.’ So we started [seeing a therapist together] right away.”
Kristen also makes a good point about how seeing a therapist can benefit a relationship and not just save one.
“You do better in the gym with a trainer; you don’t figure out how to cook without reading a recipe,” Kristen told the magazine. “Therapy is not something to be embarrassed about.”
They balance kids and a social life.
As seen through their commercials with Samsung, their lives seem pretty put together, if not a little hectic. In an interview with People, Dax spoke out about how the commercials oddly reflect life, and in ways, brought their family closer together.
“Because of Kristen’s really busy schedule and my busy schedule, all three of these commercials have been shot on weekends because it’s been the only slots that we both have,” Dax said. “That also means that our kids are on set most of the day, and it’s weirdly about the most one-on-one time Kristen and I have gotten with each other over the last six months. When we film ’em, it’s just her and I interacting for 10 straight hours, and it’s actually a really neat little vacation for us.”
“We pretty much hold hands the whole day while we shoot because when we’re at home, it’s mano a mano,” Kristen added. “One person’s got one kid, the other person’s got the other kid. So it’s a treat to get to shoot these things and work together.”
Even while they’re working separately, they still manage to take time to be together, no matter how hectic both their schedules may be.
They aren’t afraid to work together.
As if their Samsung commercials aren’t proof enough, the pair is not afraid to share their common interest in acting by working together. A lot of people say you shouldn’t work with your significant other; that you should keep your home life and your work life separate, but this couple dares to be different.
“I think the rule of thumb is it either is a terrible idea and explosive, or it’s perfect, so we got lucky in that we really love working together,” Dax told People in May. “But we worked together the first time when we had only been dating for a few months, so maybe because we started that way or something. There’s nobody I like working with more.”
“There’s a lot of trust involved because we know each other’s intentions and brains so well that to have an ally on set is lovely,” Kristen added.
They work together on causes important to them.
Aside from acting, the couple also shares a lot of interests, particularly those involving human and animal rights.
They have banned together to take a stand on paparazzi taking photos of celebrities’ children. The LA Times reported they went as far as urging fans to boycott gossip magazines that published pictures of celebrities’ children.
“We have chosen this life and that’s why we are not asking you to boycott magazines that we are in. We are asking you to boycott the magazines where people haven’t made that choice,” Dax told NBC News’ Tamron Hall.
Although Dax has publicly announced he is no longer a vegan, there was one point when both husband and wife supported the diet. They were influenced by the documentary Forks Over Knives. Kristen has been a vegetarian since she was a kid.
“I had a lot of quirks as a child. One was that I didn’t like to eat meat: I didn’t like to chew it, didn’t like the taste or smell of it, and just wasn’t having any of it,” Kristen told Vegetarian Times. “I was in the minority of kids who actually loved fruits and vegetables. My mom, who was a nurse, was very supportive of my choice to become a vegetarian, but said we were going to do some research. I’m constantly monitoring how colorful the food on my plate is, which is a trick my mom taught me. I make sure to eat really dark power vegetables, like broccoli and kale.”
Kristen and Dax give us major relationship goals. From their successful careers to their humanity work, they are both powerful individuals and a power couple. We couldn’t think of better role models to look up to.
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