“[It’s] Very Sexy:” Kristen Bell Invented A New Word For Dax Shepard’s Personality, And, Well… This Is A New One

Posted on Nov 12, 2026 UTC

Celebrities regularly introduce new terms to the wider audiences. Gwyneth Paltrow brought “conscious uncoupling” to the masses, and Drake shared the “YOLO” lifestyle with listeners. Now, Kristen Bell is putting a new term on the map, though it might take a bit to catch on: “vulneraboy.”

“I call him a vulneraboy,” Bell said of her husband, Dax Shepard, during an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show last month, joking that it would be the name of her husband’s band if he had one.

“Because he is a vulnerable [guy]. He knows a lot of stuff, but he’s also not afraid or ashamed to say, ‘I don’t know, I’ve never experienced this before,’” Bell said as Barrymore smiled. “And that’s very sexy, that level of confidence.”

The Frozen actor’s interview with the daytime talk show host came out the same time that Bell referenced Shepard’s unique way of “flirting” with her, which quickly went viral.

“There’s a couple things Dax does where he doesn’t have to look up and wink at me, but I know that he’s just being the best boy,” Bell said during the Oct. 26 episode of Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast. “We’ll be at dinner and, like, he’ll say to the waiter or waitress, he’ll go, ‘Wow, you have incredible eyelashes, gorgeous eyes. Great, great job.’”

Bell described Shepard’s interaction with others as “flirting” to her “because he just made someone else feel good.”

While some on the internet took offense to Bell’s description, listeners of Armchair Expert are familiar with the couple’s dynamic and Shepard’s way of praising others.

The Idiocracy actor addressed the public speculation about his marriage to Bell after the actor’s flirting comments went viral.

“[The] weird narrative that is surrounding me as, like, controlling, abusive, now flirting with people in public, which I don’t do… It’s so frustrating,” he said this week on his podcast.

Shepard said that Bell accidentally shared a story that “got easily confused for people. Because we’re saying I flirt with Kristen by tipping people a lot. And I flirt with Kristen by complimenting people.”

“If you think I’m complimenting, like, hot young waitresses, yeah, you got a problem,” Shepard added before explaining himself. “I’m finding the dude that I don’t think has had a compliment in a while, and tell him I love his shoes. It’s always somebody that I want to make their day.”

 This article originally appeared on HuffPost. 

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