Photo Credit: Kristen Bell/Instagram
Actress Kristen Bell was pretty open and revealing on the Justin Long podcast this week. She said that not only does she and her husband of 7 years Dax Shepard still fight, but that the fights can be pretty intense. One in particular she referenced was when they both got into it over something small that lead to them “blacking out” on each other. Now things didn’t get physical but a verbal black out can be just as bad because if you can admit to not remembering what you said in an argument, you can guarantee the other party remembers and that it was just that bad. Then again if you both blacked out, it’s more of a double negative where both arguments cancel each other out. But to keep things interesting and as a reminder not to do it again, Bell decided to lay down the blow by blow scenario of they got to that point.
“Something happened with Dax and I early on where we decided we were never going to not be asked about our relationship,” Bell told Long. “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 saccharin, and we really try hard to not make it saccharin, and we talk about the fact that we do fight, we do go to therapy, we dislike each other a lot sometimes.”
As for the relationship changing argument they had, she said “We had this pretty incredible fight recently. Incredible. I mean like top of the lungs screaming.” She went on to say, “It was about the things around the house that I felt I needed to help with. We have a relationship where you are supposed to be able to say I need your help with this,” she continued, adding, “For those of you listening, I’m telling this from my perspective. He’s not here, he can’t defend himself.”
It all started over a note left for her husband to do a couple household chores. (Doesn’t it always?) “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.’ 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.”
Bell continued, “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.” She responded in as calmly as she could manage, saying “‘OK, 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 OK with hearing?’”
That’s when emotions began to flare. “And somehow, then we both blacked out and got into a fight and I don’t actually remember what happened but what transpired was a lot of volume, a lot of harsh words being thrown around, and it was an angry, angry fight about how nobody does anything for anybody else,” Bell said. “I grabbed my pillow and stomped down the hall and I sleep in the front room and I’m crying. We don’t talk for three days.”
It was at that point they only spoke when it came to their two daughters, Lincoln, 6 and Delta, 5. She decided to take them to a dog cafe and picked up a rescue dog to bring home. It actually came after she had her husband agree over video chat. And did we mention he’s allergic to dogs? He has to have hypoallergenic pets if he has to have one and we imagine that that’s what that dog is. “I didn’t get an apology, but I got a dog!” Bell said. “This is so much better than an apology. So I bring the dog home, it’s great.”
She added, “We never talked about that fight, ever, but I will say this: Every single thing that I have needed done or thought, ‘I’d want help with this,’ since that fight, he has been ahead of. I couldn’t complain about him if I tried right now.”
We’re actually hoping that the dog is hypoallergenic and that she didn’t intentionally buy a pet that he’s allergic to out of spite for arguing with her. If so, that would kind of really dig into this good relationship persona advice she’s giving. Either way, it’s good to see that they’ve been together as long as they have. Seven years is an eternity in Hollywood and as we can see, a little bickering is healthy to a relationship, so long as it doesn’t go on too far and for too long.
