Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard’s love story began with gum — and the story is a lot to chew on.
During an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of the podcast “Where Everybody Knows Your Name,” Bell reflected on how she first met Shepard, whom she tied the knot with in 2013.
She told co-hosts Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson that she first met Shepard years prior at a party hosted by their mutual friend, film producer Shauna Robertson. She said that her initial impression of him was that he was “chatty” and that they had “no chemistry” between them.
“All I remember from that night was, ‘That guy from ‘Jackass’ talks so much— whoa he’s chatty,‘” she said with a laugh, before explaining that she later realized that Shepard, in fact, starred on the reality TV series “Punk’d.” “And he didn’t know who I was either, and obviously he was on ‘Punk’d’ and not ‘Jackass,’ but I didn’t know that at the time.”
The “Good Place” star said that she later spotted him at a hockey game and was initially interested in getting flirty with their mutual friend, Michael, whom he was with at the time.
But she said Shepard approached her instead and that a gum swapping event between them really stuck with her.
“I was chewing gum, and he said, ‘Do you have anymore gum?’ and I said, ‘No just this,’” she said, while demonstrating how she “coyly” removed the gum from her mouth and held it.
“And he grabbed it from me, and he goes, ‘I’ll take it,’” she recalled. “And then he put it in his mouth, and I was like, ‘This guy wants to fuck me.’”
“Truly beyond that, I was absolutely smitten,” she added.
Alberto E. Rodriguez via Getty Images
Shepard and Bell, who share two children, often discuss their relationship and lives as parents.
Last month, Bell told People magazine that she and her husband often discuss “the hypocrisy between Father’s Day and Mother’s Day.”
“On Father’s Day, dads are allowed to, let’s say, go golfing for eight hours and not see anyone,” she said. “For some reason, on Mother’s Day, we are expected to be woken up with breakfast in bed and have all the kids all around us at all times. That’s not a big celebration. That is something that is a daily thing in my household.”
She said that Shepard planned her a “Father’s Day Mother’s Day” last month on the holiday, by getting their kids out of the house and hiring a masseuse and manicurist.
“It was glorious,” she said.