Dax Shepard – who has two children with actress Kristen Bell – admits he had a hard time understanding the source of his partner’s unbridled happiness. In fact, he briefly wondered whether Kristen might be part of a cult.

Speaking of their early dating days in 2007, the 41-year-old actor told Good Housekeeping magazine: “When I met her and her friends, I was suspicious of their unbridled happiness. I thought, ‘Something stinks here; they’re in a cult.'”

Dax – who had an alcohol problem and has remained sober for 12 years – says therapy has helped keep their relationship strong.

“There were hurdles, things she didn’t trust about me, things I didn’t trust about her. I just kept going back to, ‘This person has the thing I want, and I have to figure out how we can exist peacefully.’ So we started [seeing a therapist together] right away.”

Kristen followed up by adding: “You do better in the gym with a trainer; you don’t figure out how to cook without reading a recipe. Therapy is not something to be embarrassed about.”

And the actress had previously admitted her marriage isn’t always perfect, as she has had to work hard to sustain it.

She shared: “I need to remind people that you don’t just find one person and then it’s all peaches and cream for the rest of your life. Marriage and a relationship is hard work, and it’s a lot of compromise. But if you compromise a lot, it’s worth it.”

Despite their issues, she acknowledges to have learned a lot from her husband’s issues: “My husband is in recovery and is almost 13 years sober.

And seeing the world through his eyes has really opened mine to knowing that it 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.”