For anyone wondering what the secret to a long, happy marriage is, Kristen Bell has the answer! And it apparently all boils down to just two words.
The 42-year-old - who has been married to fellow actor Dax Shepard for almost a decade - recently spoke to Entertainment Tonight at the premiere of her latest flick The People We Hate At The Wedding about the simple thing that's kept her marriage so strong.
"Stay vulnerable," she shared. "At least my secret. You've gotta be vulnerable - we have to be vulnerable when we don't want to be. That's what works for us."
The mom-of-two has previously also been open about the importance of therapy in her marriage, telling PEOPLE in 2021: "Every couple of years, we're like, 'We're being very antagonistic towards each other,' and we don’t want that [...] We go back to therapy and figure out what I'm not doing that's best for you and what you're not doing that's best for me, and how we can serve this team goal better."
Shepard, 46, and Bell have not always had an easy marriage, however. In fact, Shepard has been transparent about his past with substance abuse, which he said began at the age of 18. In 2005, he achieved sobriety, but revealed on his podcast Armchair Expert that he had relapsed on painkillers in 2020 while recovering from an accident.
Bell had discussed this with PEOPLE, saying: "He's a wonderful father. He knows the value of things. He was an addict for many, many years and he pulled himself out of it, and he's been sober for 11, 12 years now ... And he knows how many times he's messed up and how many times he's been really close to losing everything."
"Seeing the world through his eyes has really opened mine to knowing that [alcoholism] is a disease and nobody is choosing to drink more than others. They are doing it because of a variety of reasons and they deserve the attention of a mental health professional, and not the county jail or however else we're choosing to pretend we're fixing the problem," she continued.
The Veronica Mars actress also stated that they had to "earn" each other, adding: "Our relationship wasn't perfect. We had a couple years of fighting and of growing pains and hating each other, then loving each other and going to couples therapy and we worked it out... We earned each other."
