Michael Rozman/Warner Bros.
Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard‘s love story is as good as it gets.
In Thursday’s episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show (taped Wednesday), Shepard opens up about why having a birthday so close to Christmas and New Year’s Day is the “worst” thing. “It’s traditionally when you go back to school as a kid. It’s like, ‘Happy birthday! Go to school!’ And then when you get there, there was a big break. So, when they read the happy birthdays over the loud speaker, you’re among like 30 people who had birthdays. Nothing special!” the 44-year-old Armchair Expert podcast host joked with Ellen DeGeneres. “Now as an adult when I try to have a birthday party, everyone has just quit eating carbs and they’re not drinking. All this goes out the window in a week, but my birthday is in the first week. I can’t get more than six people to attend my birthday party—and I’m on television and they know Kristen will be there.”
Shepard’s mother, Laura LaBo, was in the audience—and every year, on the eve of the actor’s birthday, she tells him his birth story. “It was happening last night, and Kristen was listening to the story and also she got her first labor pain at 11:30 watching Johnny Carson, and then I was in her arms at 1:15 a.m. And Kristen was like, ‘Hold on a second! You’re saying from your first labor pain to holding the baby was an hour and 40 minutes?’ She was like, ‘Yes,'” Shepard recalled. “Eventually I had to tell Kristen, ‘Stop poking holes in the story. It’s lore now. Like Kim Jong-un—he’s only scored hole in ones when he golfs. That’s what this story is all about. We don’t need the truth. We just need to celebrate the arrival of this freak.’ There’s a few things that don’t add up. I don’t think Kristen will be a part of next year’s telling of the birthday myth.”
Before going to commercial break, DeGeneres gave Shepard a special pair of overalls for his birthday gift. “You still love Brad Pitt, right?” she asked. “It’s Brad Pitt all over—in every form!”
Next, Shepard fielded questions from the audience—and Bell had a very important inquiry. “What would you recommend getting someone very special, like a spouse, for their birthday?” the Good Place star, 38, asked her husband. “Or how would you spoil them on their birthday?”
“In the bedroom?” Shepard teased.
With a smirk, Bell replied, “Let’s say I have in the bedroom covered.”
As tears filled his eyes, Shepard told his wife, “I would say please, please, please give that person love and support for 11 years. Give them two beautiful baby girls—and you’re good.”
Trying to control her emotions, Bell told him, “You’re crying, too!”
“You sit down, young lady!” Shepard joked. “We’ve heard enough of your questions.”
Before Bell took a seat next to Shepard’s mom, she told him, “I love you.”
“See!” he joked with DeGeneres. “We had to bring her on my birthday so people would come!”
Watch the entire video to see how DeGeneres scared Shepard and Bell in Thursday’s episode.