There were no sparks between Frozen 2‘s Kristen Bell and husband Dax Shepard the first time they met.
But weeks later, amid a shared love of Detroit hockey, the two started to click. And the rest is history.
Bell, 39, and Shepard, 44, have been together for over a decade and wed in 2013. They share two daughters. Bell and Shepard met in 2007 at a mutual friend’s small sushi birthday dinner. They both came with some baggage.
“I had just gotten out of a long-term relationship like two months prior [with ex-fiancé Kevin Mann] and in retrospect, I realized [Shepard] had just gotten out of a long relationship,” Bell said on NBC’s Sunday Today. “We were sitting at a table. The only thing I remember is that he talked so much. I was like, ‘This guy can ta-alk!’ And then I didn’t know who he was…maybe one of the guys from Jackass or something.”
“There were no sparks whatsoever,” she later added. “None.”
Two weeks later, they met again at a Los Angeles Kings-Detroit Red Wings hockey game.
“We…started to flirt, left and then a day after that I get a text that says, ‘Hi, this is Dax. I violated your privacy and got your number from Shawna. How do you feel about that?'” Bell said. “And I was like, ‘Excuse me? You sound stimulating.'”
Bell admired Shepard’s boldness.
“I fell in love with him way before he fell in love with me,” she said.
Bell would go on to make an appearance alongside Shepard on MTV’s Punk’d, in which he played a field agent, in 2005. They later starred together in the films Hit and Run, The Boss, When in Rome and CHIPS, which Shepard also directed.
See Bell and Shepard’s epic love story in pictures:
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Who Is This?
“Who is this sparkly creature?'” Dax recalled thinking when he met Kristen at a friend’s birthday dinner in 2007. After running into each other again two weeks later at a hockey game they decided to accept fate and start dating.
Opposites Attract
The old saying rings true for this couple, who both had doubts to go along with the butterflies early on. Dax said his playboy past didn’t go unnoticed by “good girl” Kristen, who told Good Housekeeping, “We’re the Paula Abdul video ‘Opposites Attract’ personified.”
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The Engagement
The two got engaged in late 2009 while co-starring in When In Rome together. They weren’t immune to the romance of the Italian city and just like in their movie, the couple fell under a real life love spell.
Noel Vasquez/Getty Images
Snuggling Sweethearts
In an interview about her relationship with Dax in 2010, Kristen shared,”A snuggle party can fix anything—it’s true.”
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The Wedding
The couple got married in a simple ceremony at a Beverly Hills courthouse in 2013 after announcing their plans to wed on Twitter earlier in the year. Their choice to forego an extravagant wedding made their love story even more romantic to fans.
Isabella/INFphoto.com
The Honeymoon Period
Dax told Ellen DeGeneres that in lieu of a wedding ring he tattooed a bell on his ring finger. Get it?!
Jason Merritt/Getty Images
Next Comes the Baby Carriage
Bell gave birth to their first child, a girl they named Lincoln, in March 2013. Fiercely protective of her daughter’s privacy, Kristen quipped, “I would really like to see the aftermath of the first person who tries to take a picture of Lincoln.”
Parents of Two
In December 2014 the couple had their second daughter, Delta, and later that year both parents were shown enjoying the exhausting life of parenting toddlers in an adorable series of commercials for Samsung appliances.
The Plot Twist
In an interview with Good Housekeeping in May 2015 Kristen shared that she and her hubby attend couples counseling when they need to work through an issue saying, “Therapy is not something to be embarrassed about.”
Instagram Official
Kristen Bell finally joined Instagram in 2016 and inaugurated her account with a closeup of her and her husband sharing a kiss.
Gregg DeGuire/WireImage
Happily Ever After
The two looked just as in love as ever at the premiere of Dax’s new movie Chips in March 2017.
Happy Fourth!
They two celebrated the 2017 Fourth of July holiday in style.
Keepin’ It Real
The pair continues to prove that they’re just like any other couple. They openly share that they go to marriage counseling and sometimes fight. However what remains constant is their respect for each other. Kristen shared her marriage advice on Instagram writing, “Loving someone despite their faults, failings, or character defects, is the most powerful loving thing you can do. Rejoice in what makes the other person happy and allow them their individual interests.”
Strong Women
Dax is surrounded by strong women, some of whom being his wife and two daughters. For International Women’s Day, he shared a series of photos of the inspiring women in his life. Alongside the post he wrote, “I married a powerful, nurturing woman at 38. Nearly everything good about me was instilled by a woman. I have been absolutely spoiled in this department. And it’s just getting started. I now get to watch my two most lovable dingleberries grow into women themselves.”
PDA Forever
Ever since they began dating, Dax and Kristen have never been shy about their public displays of affection. From the red carpet to Instagram, the duo never shies away from a cute smooch. In a Valentine’s Day post for her husband, Kristen shared her love for the man “who is as interested in PDA as I am.”
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