Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard's relationship hasn't always been perfect, and the two aren't afraid to acknowledge that.
The couple, who have been married since 2013 and have two children, discussed their partnership, how they met and how they've managed to stay together all these years, in a recent interview with PEOPLE.
The two are so different that they didn't immediately click at first, according to Shephard. It took more than one meeting before, "sparks were flying," she said.
“All these movies from the ’80s taught us that it’s love at first sight, and it is supposed to be easy and [that] all you have to do is find that person,” Bell told the publication.
“It took me a while to realize, ‘Oh, that was such a lie,’ because things that you work really, really, really hard for always yield the best results.”
(MORE: Kristen Bell pens touching post for Dax Shepard's 14th sobriety birthday)“We definitely had to work really hard at being a couple because we’re both incredibly, painfully stubborn, and we’re pretty much opposites,” Shepard added.
They have been together for nearly 12 years -- aside from a brief breakup in the first year of their relationship. However, Shepard quickly realized he'd made a mistake in breaking up with Bell at the time.
Through therapy and compromise over the years, the two made a big decision about one major point of contention between them -- the act of actually getting married.
“He has a great argument that the state having a piece of paper doesn’t mean he’s going to be nice to me and by my side for the rest of my life. [Rather], that is going to be evidenced by how we treat each other and the commitment that we make,” Bell told PEOPLE.
“I had surrendered, like ‘Okay, well, I’m never going to get any sort of traditional marriage out of this, and that’s okay because I trust him,'" she continued. "I really, really trusted him and believed that we were going to go the long haul.”
(MORE: Kristen Bell on how Dax Shepard rid her of mastitis)However, Shepard decided to propose in 2009, knowing how much it meant to his Bell, he told the publication.
"Ultimately, I was like, ‘Well, I’m doing it because my partner wants that,'" he said. "Forget the tradition or history of marriage as a concept, you knowing I was doing something that I didn’t want to do because I loved you was a big sign for you."
“We do a lot of things differently, but there’s a couple things where I’m just like, ‘God, can we not just fall inside the lines once in a while?" Bell said. "It felt nice afterwards."
She also described her wedding day in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning in 2016.
"We got married in a tiny room in the Beverly Hills courthouse, and it was still one of the best days of my life," she said.
