Kristen Bell has an unusual way of knowing when her husband is flirting with her. Dax Shepard does it by complimenting someone else. Bell explained the logic on the Oct. 26 episode of Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, where she appeared alongside her Nobody Wants This castmates, according to E! Online.
Thirteen years of marriage, and the flirting now goes through the waiter.
Kristen Bell’s Insight on Flirting
Bell set the scene at a dinner out. She told the table there are a couple of things Shepard does in public that work like a private signal. He does not need to look up and wink at her. She just knows he’s being “the best boy.”
Her example was specific. Shepard will turn to the person serving them and tell them they have incredible eyelashes and gorgeous eyes, then add a quick “great job.”
Monica Padman, Shepard’s co-host, saw it differently. She joked that Shepard was flirting with the restaurant staff. Kristen Bell shut that down immediately.
“That’s flirting with me because he just made someone else feel good,” the 46-year-old said.
Dax Shepard’s Compliments Explained
Bell’s reasoning rests on how brief these moments are. Say the server is a woman, she offered. Shepard will have zero interaction with her for the rest of his life. Bell called the odds of a second conversation microscopic.
So a compliment to a stranger carries no threat. What it shows her is the kind of man she married. Per E! Online, Bell said that when Shepard actively smiles at people and hands out compliments, that is how she knows he is flirting with her a lot.
Plenty of couples would read the same scene as a problem. Bell reads it as a character reference. Shepard hands out compliments to a waiter or waitress he will almost certainly never speak to again, so he gains nothing from it. Bell sees that kind of generosity as proof of who her husband is. She says the warmth is aimed at her, even when the words land on someone else.
Adam Brody, her Nobody Wants This co-star, used the same episode to go the other way on romance. According to Just Jared, Brody said his 2013 proposal to Leighton Meester was “not as romantic as it should have been.” The only romantic thing about it, he said, was the speed. When Shepard asked whether Brody was allergic to pageantry, Brody answered, “Certainly.” His advice now is to plan a proposal for the story you will tell forever.
The Couple’s Unique Relationship Dynamics
Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard have a long record of saying things about their marriage that make outsiders blink. Bell marked their 12th anniversary in October 2025 with an Instagram caption about one memorable night. Shepard had just finished an episode of Dateline when he assured her he would never kill her, despite being “heavily incentivized.” The post made waves.
Shepard did not always plan to marry anyone. The Blast reported that he once held what he called an “anarchist point of view” on marriage. He told Bell a piece of paper filed at a California courthouse would not dictate how he treated her. He did not want to ask the state for permission to be together, then ask it again to split. Both of them, he noted, were children of multiple divorces.
Bell said she had accepted she might never officially marry him. He already treated her like his wife.
Christmas changed his mind. According to The Blast, Bell flew to Detroit to collect Shepard’s parents and brought them back to California for Christmas Eve. Shepard later recalled on his podcast what a beautiful night it was with his family. Lying in bed afterward, Bell started talking about how grateful she was for the family they were building. Shepard realized that feeling was the one he wanted to keep recreating.
Put that next to the waiter story and a pattern shows up. Shepard’s affection rarely arrives in the expected package. A refusal to marry was framed as a lifetime promise. An anniversary tribute came wrapped in a Dateline joke. Flirting comes in the form of praise for a stranger’s eyelashes. Kristen Bell has spent years learning to translate, and she seems to enjoy the translation.
She described the core of it on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live in October 2025. The two understand each other’s highs and lows, excitements and complaints, she said. Both are creative, and a random conversation can turn into something that feels like they built it together.
Thirteen years in, the compliments are still going to strangers. Bell is still counting every one as hers.
Sources: E! Online, Just Jared, The Blast
