Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard have an extremely dysfunctional relationship and they’ll tell us about it as if it’s normal. They seem to believe that every couple hates each other. I don’t have the room or mental fortitude to do a real recap of the many times they’ve telegraphed this, but they’ve admitted that they can go three days or more without talking to each other. As context they have two daughters aged 11 and 13 and have been together for 19 years.
In a new episode of the Armchair Expert podcast with her Nobody Wants This costars Adam Brody, Justine Lupe, and Timothy Simons, Kristen said that Dax regularly compliments other people, like waitresses, on their appearance. He just doesn’t tell them he likes their outfits, the example she gave is of Dax complimenting a server’s eyelashes and a female friend’s eyebrows. It sounds creepy to the people, but it could also be disrespectful to Kristen depending on the context. Dax’s cohost Monica Padman said that means Dax is flirting, but Kristen countered that Dax is acutally flirting with her. The context is that Dax said that he loves to be complimented on his looks so he does that to other people. What a dolt he is. Here’s what they said and I’ve queued up the video below to that part.
Dax: I would love to be told I’m handsome. So then I project onto them like, “Oh, they would love to hear that they’re so handsome.” But when you’re really handsome, you don’t really need to hear it… I try to find something really nice on someone.
Kristen: You’ll pull out a feature. That’s how I know you’re flirting with me a lot. Like if we go to a dinner or something, 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.
We’ll be at dinner and he’ll say to the waiter or waitress, “Wow, you have incredible eyelashes, gorgeous eyes. Great, great job.”
Monica: That’s flirting with her.
Kristen: But that’s flirting with me because he just made someone else feel good. Let’s say it is a girl. He’s going to 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. But to me to know that my partner actively smiles at people and gives them compliments…
[To Dax] No, but you’ve never done anything that’s felt even borderline. You’ll point out if someone has great eyebrows or great cheekbones… That’s why it makes me fluttery inside. That’s why it gives me butterflies because everyone saw it.
He’s the only one that said it. Maybe she hadn’t had a compliment today.
[From Armchair Expert transcript]
The “best boy” part made me nauseous. Who wants to be complimented on their eyelashes from someone they’re serving? Justine Lupe gave an example from their show of her character’s ex-boyfriend complimenting a server’s lips. That was meant to show that the woman was in a bad relationship. Justine looked so over it during this conversation.
I had a boyfriend who would regularly “flirt” with service women in front of me. It was awful and I should have dumped him much sooner than I did. It was mean to both the people subjected to it and to me. I would get super mad at him, but I would try to play it off because I was trapped in that relationship somewhat. Is that what Kristen is doing? Is she so deep in cognitive dissonance about her marriage that she tells herself Dax is really flirting with her? She sounds sincere and not like she’s trolling us, although she likes to do that too. I don’t think she’s a good enough actress to sell it like this without believing it herself.
Comments on E!’s tweet about this (below) say “that’s not how flirting works.” One of the top comments wonders whether Kristen and Dax are in an open relationship. I don’t think they are, but I don’t think that means Dax is faithful. Clearly Kristen is deep in denial about… something. It seems to work for them. To quote Kismet’s dad, “good of them to take each other out of circulation.” I have used that expression so many times since hearing it.
Kristen Bell admitted Dax Shepard flirts with her when he compliments other people: “That’s flirting with me because he just made someone else feel good.” https://t.co/Qc9JitmoJq https://t.co/Wzq579waIB
— E! News (@enews) October 26, 2026
photos credit: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon and via YouTube
Kismet’s dad nailed it. These two are all kinds of weird.
That is such a good line. I’m going to have to steal it from Kismet’s dad lol.
I feel so bad for their kids if this is what they’re modeling for them. Even if they’ve (Kristen) decided this is fine and good, those kids are going to be set up to accept really horrible behavior- negging is a form of gaslighting and that’s what this is. Toss the whole man out.
Their relationship just seems so toxic. Even the way they’re posed on the cover of the video – – why aren’t they standing together?? Rather than two people apart from each other in a group. Everything she says about him is pure copium. Not to mention, having been in a server job as a young person, no, we didn’t want some roided up middle aged man “complimenting” us about our appearances, that’s very creepy and objectifying. IF there is anything to compliment to a service worker you don’t know who is relying on you for a tip, it should be that they are handling a large crowd well, or brought drinks quickly or something like that. NOT their appearance. As a now older woman, when her gross hub does something like that, instead of facilitating, she should recognize that he’s likely making the server uncomfortable and SHUT HIM DOWN.
THIS. As someone who worked on drive-thru as a teenager and regularly got middle aged men telling me how pretty I was or that I had nice eyes whilst staring at my chest, women do not want or like that kind of so-called compliment.
She comes across as so desperate to be cool with his behaviour, making strange excuses like the one in this interview, its cringe inducing and embarrassing.
100 per cent agree. These two are completely toxic and co-dependant, IDK WHY she seems to want his approval. But as far as her husband goes. Try harder Dax, because NO ONE is interested in you or having you compliment them.
I was watching an episode of Drew the other day, and it was all cringe. I love drew but sometimes she has way too much EMO – anyway, Kristen was on there talking about being a wife and mother and some sort of validation they seek and it was just this giant contrived word salad – and I genuinely got the ick. It seemed so performative for no reason.
And thats how i feel when I see Dax & Kristen. They are both so performative & this is the platform for their relationship.
Their relationship is just toxic.
But. You can make someone feel good by being nice to them, by thanking them, by saying you appreciate them. And none of those things would lead the stranger to misread the situation and like slip you their number? Or make the stranger feel like they’re being hit on in front of your spouse and feel uncomfortable?
My friend’s ex boyfriend complimented my eyelashes once in front of her and I was like what? No they’re not long, nope. Basically shut it down bc I didn’t want her to feel bad. I didn’t think he was hitting on me, I knew he was trying to be nice but I didn’t know if he had paid her a compliment lately or if she was self conscious about something in her appearance and was now going to fixate on her boyfriend noticing someone else’s eyelashes. Nope.
She wants to be with him more than he wants to be with her, so he does what he wants and she pretends it’s all fine. Seen this many times, sad to witness.
Truly. The grandma thing of make sure the man loves you more is very true. I can’t renege where I read it, but the most successful hetero pairings are they’re equally in love with each other, or the man loves the woman more. Otherwise this is what you get, no different than any toxic evangelical marriage where just staying married is the goal and the wife puts up with whatever.
Ugh. I just wish they would both stop talking. About their toxic relationship. About how they don’t bathe their children. Or how the kids drink non alcoholic beer.
None of this is funny or cute. I know they think it is but it just isn’t.
She is very talented. I loved her on Veronica Mars. She was great in Queen Pins. I don’t know what the eff she’s doing with this tool.
I wish they’d never started oversharing bc they have both given me the ick since.
Like you said, Kristen Bell is such a good actor! I’ve been rewatching The Good Place and she is phenomenal, but now I have a whole hill to climb to watch her in new stuff.
Real-life Kristen now reminds me of unreconstructed Eleanor Shellstrop, forever making poor choices. Eleanor would be all-in on gross men like Dax, although she preferred them to be much better looking.
I’ve been on either side of this (the person being flirted with and the GF watching her BF flirt) and it absolutely sucks. So uncomfortable and awkward. Also, some people are not comfortable with compliments. Some people just want to do their fucking job and be left TF alone.
Exactly.
I’ve never been a service worker of any kind, but when I was teaching, I’d have dads hitting on me on a near-daily basis. Sometimes it was in front of their wives. It just made me feel terrible because I thought, “great, I’m going to be the subject of an argument tonight”.
It’s super-cringe when a person flirts with wait staff. That server is trying to do their job, and at the mercy of a customer who’s taking advantage of a power dynamic. If the server indicates Dax’s compliment makes them uncomfortable, they are risking getting a decent tip- so their livelihood is literally connected to graciously tolerating these unwanted compliments, which is in fact harassment. I’ve never worked as wait staff, but I worked in plenty of job where men chased me around a desk. This is in the same vein… Dax, compliment the server on doing a good job, not how pretty their eyelashes are. And Kristen, FFS, get your head out of your ass- he’s a creep.
Who’s going to tell her? Why is she being so dense? Everyone knows what’s going on when men do this in front of their wife or girlfriend.
The worst thing about being the server in the situation is that you’re forced to be polite and act like what he’s doing is OK. That’s why men do it, because the server can’t treat him like the creep he’s being.
Kristen, honey, shhhhh. Just… shhh.
I learned that Dax was offered the lead of Wesley in Wanted before a producer took over, shut it down, saw James McAvoy in a series and immediately made a offer to him.
THANK CHRIST !!!
Is Kristen truly this dumb? It sounds like she caught him flirting or sexting somebody and he said “no, baby- I’m actually doing this for YOU,” and she bought it hook, line, and sinker so it’s his permanent excuse now. Based on everything I’ve ever heard about them, I don’t think he even likes her.
It is so strange that she seems all in on this; he consististently projects what an awful human being he is in so many ways, not the least in what’s normal behavior in his marriage.
I’ve been a fan of Peter Krause since Sports Night, he one of my celebrity crushes and every time he mentions his friendship with DS my crush dies a little more, thats how creepy/awful DS comes across. Pretty much everyone I hear about going on his podcast falls in my estimation. And don’t get me started on the bizarre dynamic DS, KB have with Dax’s podcast assistant
My youtube feed is blowing up with videos from every “how to recognize, avoid, recover from toxic/abusive behavior in a relationship” poster over this. People are NOT buying what these to are selling.