Nearly six months after Kristen Bell stirred up controversy with an anniversary tribute to husband Dax Shepard, the actor has broken his silence on the drama.
“I was alerted by someone that this whole thing was happening,” Shepard, 51, recalled during the Monday, April 6, episode of his “Armchair Expert” podcast, which featured guest Nikki Glaser. “I didn’t know, and Kristen knew through her publicist but didn’t tell me. So, I actually didn’t know, and this was brought to my attention.”
Shepard added that he was in the dark about the controversy for “a week and a half.”
“I had no clue,” he continued. “Someone comforted me, and I was like, ‘What are you [talking about]?’ And then I had to go to Kristen, like, ‘What are they talking about?’ She’s like, ‘Oh, that post I had.’”
Bell, 45, faced backlash over her wedding anniversary tribute to Shepard in October 2025.
“Happy 12th wedding anniversary to the man who once said to me: ‘I would never kill you. A lot of men have killed their wives at a certain point. Even though I’m heavily incentivized to kill you, I never would,❤️’” the Frozen actress captioned an Instagram post at the time.
While some fans thought the post was lighthearted and romantic, others took issue with the caption. Bell’s tribute even sparked a reaction from the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
“There’s nothing funny about domestic violence ‘jokes’ that trivialize the very real fear, trauma and pain that millions of victims and survivors face each day,” a rep for the nonprofit told Page Six in a statement at the time. “Especially during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we all have a responsibility to support victims and survivors, to invest in proven solutions and to speak about this issue with the seriousness it deserves.”
While Bell has not publicly reacted to the criticism, she skipped an appearance on the Today show and limited comments on her social media amid the controversy.
Glaser, 41, told Shepard that she initially planned to joke about the situation at the 2026 Golden Globe Awards in January. (Shepard and Bell attended the awards ceremony together, while Glaser was the host.)
“Die My Love. If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You. Sorry, Baby,” the comedian said, recalling the joke she cut from the show. “These are not just captions to Dax Shepard’s Instagram post for Mother’s Day. Or, like … these are not just Dax Shepard captions for his anniversary post. These are movies nominated tonight.”
Shepard laughed and told Glaser that the joke was “very funny.”
“But I didn’t do it because I also, like, it was old news by then,” Glaser continued. “But mostly because I didn’t know where you stood on [the topic]. I wasn’t one of those people that reached out like, ‘I got your back, man.’ ‘Cause I’m like, ‘Maybe he doesn’t even know about this.’”
Months after the anniversary post drama, Bell gushed about Shepard as she prepared to host SAG’s 2026 Actor Awards in March.
“There’s nothing that he won’t do to take care of me,” Bell told People ahead of the awards show. “One thing that I love so much about being married to him is that he is never allergic to me shining more and more. He never gets insecure about it.”
