Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard's Relationship Timeline

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard have a relationship that should make all couples envious. They've been together for 11 years, married for seven—an anomaly in Hollywood—and aren't afraid to keep things real. From their first meeting to their low-key courthouse wedding, here is a complete timeline of Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard's relationship.

• Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard met at a dinner party in 2007 and soon after began dating on and off.
• Dax proposed to Kristen in 2009 but the couple infamously waited to marry until same-sex marriage was legalized in California. They tied the knot at The Beverly Hills courthouse on October 17, 2013.
• They have two children together: daughters Lincoln Bell Shepard and Delta Bell Shepard, whom they welcomed in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

2007: Meeting at a Dinner Party

Kristen and Dax first met at a mutual friend's dinner party in 2007. Both had recently ended long-term relationships and in 2019, the actress admitted there were "no sparks whatsoever" when the two first met that night, per Today (Kristen didn't even know who he was at the time!). However, two weeks later they attended a Detroit Red Wings baseball game together and began flirting.

In 2015, Dax admitted to Good Housekeeping, "When I met her and her friends, I was suspicious of their unbridled happiness. I thought, 'Something stinks here; they're in a cult.' But slowly I began to see her positive way of looking at the world. She gives people the benefit of the doubt."

2007: Dating On and Off

Their romantic relationship began not only after meeting in 2007, but their early love story was riddled with break-ups and make-ups. "When we first met, we fell madly in love and I love the dramatic exit. There is nothing I crave more," Kristen told Harry Connick Jr. "We'd get in a fight because we'd fight a lot, and I'd yell something and then slam the bedroom door, then I'd slam the front door, then I'd get in my car and then I'd skid out the driveway and I would sit around the corner in my car and it felt so good and I realized how incredibly toxic it was only after he pointed it out."

After three months together, Dax briefly ended the relationship. Kristen recalled to PopSugar in 2017, "He sat me down and said, 'I can't have this right now. I think you're wonderful, but I am still dating other people.' And then I, like, liquefied and fell to the ground, but I felt incredibly respected that he had the balls to tell me we weren't in the same place."

The break-up was short-lived, however—Dax came back to her just a few days later!

December 2009: Engaged Over the Holidays

After two years together, Dax proposed to Kristen over the holidays in 2009. The proposal was in part thanks to the encouragement of Kristen's Couples Retreat co-star Jason Bateman who supposedly told Dax to "‘stop f—ing around and marry Kristen," Dax told People.

January 29, 2010: When In Rome Co-Stars

In what would become their first of a few on-screen appearances together, the newly-engaged pair appeared in the 2010 film When In Rome, where Kristen starred as the lead.

March 28, 2013: Becoming Parents to Lincoln Bell Shepard

On March 28, 2013, Kristen and Dax (who were not yet married at the time), welcomed their first child together—a daughter named Lincoln Bell Shepard.

June 26, 2013: Kristen Proposes to Dax

Despite having been engaged since 2009, the A-list couple was waiting to tie the knot until same-sex marriage was legalized in California. But, when same-sex marriage was legalized in June of 2013, Kristen commemorated the moment with a tweet, writing, "@daxshepard1 will you marry me? Xo #marriageequality #loveislove."

October 17, 2013: A Courthouse Wedding

On October 17, 2013, Kristen and Dax finally wed at the Beverly Hills courthouse. The ceremony was unbelievably low-key for a Hollywood couple—and only cost the pair $142. Kristen wore an all-black outfit and rather than a traditional wedding ring, Dax opted for a wedding tattoo with a cute meaning instead: He tattooed a small bell on his ring finger.

But while their marriage started on Oct. 17, the couple later admitted that it is difficult for them both to remember their wedding anniversary. "Here's the funny thing...neither of us remember, genuinely, what the day is [of our wedding]. I think it's October 17th, but that's because your segment producer told me that," Kristen said to James Corden in 2017. "We only know because my mom reminds me. She's like 'Happy anniversary!' [Dax and I] wake up and check our texts and go 'Happy anniversary, honey.'"

December 18, 2014: Welcoming Delta Bell Shepard

Kristen and Dax welcome baby number two, and second daughter, Delta Bell Shepard on December 18, 2019.

November 9, 2015: Attending Couples Therapy

"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," Kristen told Entertainment Tonight about her decision to go to couple's therapy with Dax.

March 24, 2017: On-Screen Husband and Ex-Wife

When Dax's film CHiPs (an adaptation based on the 1970s show) premiered in 2017, the movie starred Kristen as his fictional ex-wife. But while it wasn't the first time the real-life married couple stood next to each other on the silver screen, Dax admitted that Kristen wasn't his first choice for the role. "He told me, 'I think you’re too damn likable.' Which I took as a compliment, I’m glad he likes me," Kristen told USA Today. “But I threw down a not-so-thinly-veiled threat: 'I can be very unlikable. Welcome to the next week of your life.'”

Of course, Kristen proved that she could play the part perfectly and landed the role.

Summer 2017: Family Vacation to Michigan

In an issue of Airbnb Magazine, Kristen credited a family vacation to the couple's home state of Michigan as a bonding experience for her and her husband. “I learned more about my husband as we both shared stories about things we did growing up,” she said. “We’ve decided to go home, at least for a week, to a Michigan lake every year.”

January 18, 2018: Dax Appears on The Good Place

Dax appeared in season two of the NBC comedy The Good Place, which starred his wife Kristen. In the cameo appearance, he played a demon hitting on Kristen's character.

February 14, 2018: Podcast Hosts

Dax kicked off his podcast, "The Armchair Expert," in 2018 with a very special guest: his wife Kristen! They discussed their childhood, morals, and what they learned from each other throughout their relationship.

September 1, 2018: 14 Years of Sobriety

On September 1, 2018, Kristen celebrated her husband's 14 years of sobriety with a heartfelt post on Instagram. "To the man mocked me in our wedding photos because I cried too many tears of joy,
who wore a baby Bjorn for 2 straight years to show his girls how to be as adventurous as possible,
who held our dear little shakey man pup for 8 hrs straight on the day we had to put him down,
I know how much you loved using. I know how much it got in your way. And I know, because I saw, how hard you worked to live without it," she wrote. "I will forever be in awe of your dedication, and the level of fierce moral inventory you perform on yourself, like an emotional surgery, every single night...I love you more than I ever thought I could love anyone, and I want you to know, I see you. I see how hard you work. You set an excellent example of being human."

December 14, 2018: Dax Denies Cheating Rumors

At the end of 2018, Daily Mail published photos of Dax with actress Julie Andrews' granddaughter Kayti Edwards allegedly from nine years ago—the beginning of his relationship with Kristen. But Dax turned to Instagram to squash the allegations, writing, "Hey Daily Mail, that photo is 13 years old, not 9. Also, Kayti has sold stories to tabloids about Matthew Perry, Jack Osbourne, Kid Rock, and now me.," per Refinery29.

February 25, 2019: A Joint Business Venture

The parents of two embarked on a joint business venture together when they launched Hello Bello, a company that sells plant-based baby products, in 2019. "As a mom of two, I know how beautifully messy parenthood can be, and that's why we created Hello Bello—a line of premium, super-effective baby care products to take care of your kids from head-to-butt-to-toe," said Kristen in a press release. Dax added, "We know parenting is hard enough as it is."

March 30, 2020: Life During Quarantine

At the end of March 2020, the A-list couple chatted with Katie Couric over Instagram Live to discuss life during quarantine. Bell claimed the pair had been "at each other’s throats, real bad," while Dax left the chat early, joking, "America's sweetheart has some character defects."

May 13, 2020: Kristen Falls Deeper in Love

But by May 2020, the couple had found a solid quarantine routine. And Kristen even admitted to People that watching Dax homeschool their two young daughters made her "fall much deeper in love with him." Although, she still called the first few weeks of quarantine "f---ing brutal," adding,  "We were driving each other nuts and we were fighting so much, but we worked it out like adults. The good thing is even when we're fighting, we can still laugh at each other and at ourselves."

March 16, 2021: Puppy Parents

In March 2021. the couple adopted a three-legged rescue dog named Whiskey. "Before he was rescued he got in a fight with a truck and lost (a leg) but who needs four legs anyway?" she wrote on Instagram about the newest addition to their family. "He and dog Brother Frank share my lap (see photo evidence), the girls adore him and Dad lovingly tolerates him. No more truck stops for you, buddy. Welcome home."