Kristen Bell knows she doesn’t have a perfect marriage.
After sparking backlash for her “tone-deaf” wedding anniversary tribute to husband Dax Shepard, the 45-year-old actress opened up about the marital woes that the couple deals with
“Having someone I feel that is very opposite from me is certainly something that I feel. I feel like my real-life husband and I are ‘opposites attract,’” Bell said in a new interview with People while comparing her and Shepard’s relationship to her and Adam Brody’s characters’ romance in Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This.”
“But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t make it work,” Bell added, “or didn’t want to make it work.”
The “Gossip Girl” alum explained that the couple “have to have a lot of patience for each other to figure out what the compromises would be.”
“And a general understanding that we’re probably going to have different viewpoints on almost everything — and figure out a respectful way to have those discussions,” she continued.
Bell and Shepard, 50, have been married since Oct. 2013. They share daughters Lincoln, 12, and Delta, 10.
Late last week, Bell was accused of downplaying domestic violence in her Instagram post marking the couple’s relationship milestone.
“Happy 12th wedding anniversary to the man who once said to me: ‘I would never kill you. A lot of men have killed their wives at a certain point. Even though I’m heavily incentivized to kill you, I never would,’” Bell captioned a photo of the two hugging on a bed.
Bell’s message was condemned by hundreds of fans on Instagram, which led her to limit her social media comments.
The National Network to End Domestic Violence also slammed Bell’s post.
“There’s nothing funny about domestic violence ‘jokes’ that trivialize the very real fear, trauma, and pain that millions of victims and survivors face each day,” a rep for the organization told Page Six in a statement on Tuesday.
“We all have a responsibility to support victims and survivors, to invest in proven solutions and to speak about this issue with the seriousness it deserves,” the statement added.
Amidst the backlash, Bell skipped her scheduled appearance on “Today” on Wednesday morning to promote the new season of “Nobody Wants This.” Her co-star Justine Lupe did the interview alone.
But Bell did emerge later that night at New York City’s 92nd Street Y, where she posed on the red carpet before participating in a panel conversation with her co-stars.
She wore a black silk tank with palazzo pants and a beret to the event.
In “Nobody Wants This,” Bell plays sex and dating podcaster Joanne Williams who falls for rabbi Noah Roklov (Brody). The series also stars Lupe, Timothy Simons and Jackie Tohn.
The first season of the show came out in Sept. 2024. All ten episodes of Season 2 were released on Thursday.
