Dax Shepard addresses Kristen Bell’s ‘tone-deaf’ anniversary post for first time after wife faced intense backlash
Anniversary posts on social media are rarely reflective of the real relationship but there's no doubting that Kristen Bell's controversial post was honest at least.
The actor faced intense backlash last year when celebrating her anniversary with her husband Dax Shepard after she was accused of making light of domestic violence victims with her post.
Married since 2013, the couple are certainly renowned for their somewhat strange social media presence, with Bell once admitting that she wouldn't really care if her husband cheated, while Shepard also shared a NSFW image of his wife as way of congratulations after she received an Emmy award.
But it was Bell's post in 2025 which saw the couple face the most criticism.
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In case you haven't seen it, she wrote: "Happy 12th wedding anniversary to the man who, after an episode of Dateline, 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.'" How romantic.
People are always quick to comment over what they believe is funny and what isn't, especially in the case of celebrities who will never actually know or speak to the people who follow them religiously online.
But Bell was clearly affected by the backlash, as she refused to speak about it publicly and ended up restricting who could comment on the post.
Now her husband has spoken about the incident on his 'Armchair Expert' podcast, admitting that he didn't even realise how viral it had become until sometime after.
Speaking to his guest Nikki Glaser on Monday's episode, he said: “I was alerted by someone that this whole thing was happening. 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.”
While we might never know for sure if he actually said those words to his wife, he doesn't seem to be too bothered by the comments about it, even suggesting that Glasner's later joke was 'very funny'.
She had suggested that she planned to tell her joke at the Golden Globes in January, something he seemingly would have been fine with.
Glaser cracked, “‘Die My Love. If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You. Sorry, Baby.’ 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.”
If you ask me, this was likely just a joke, albeit a not particularly well thought through one, between a couple who have been happily married for more than a decade, and we should all probably stop being so bothered by what people we will never meet are posting.
Topics: Kristen Bell, Social Media
James Moorhouse