Dax Shepard is finally speaking on the Kristen Bell anniversary post that stirred up a lot of side-eye online, and by his own account, he was late to the whole mess.
The actor said he had no idea the post had sparked backlash until well after it blew up. On the April 6 episode of his podcast ‘Armchair Expert,’ Shepard explained that Bell knew about the reaction through her publicist, but kept him out of it at first. So yes, he was the last one to find out about drama tied to a post that was very much about him.
‘I was alerted by someone that this whole thing was happening,’ Dax said. ‘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.’
Dax Says He Missed The Backlash Entirely
Shepard, 51, said he only learned about the reaction around a week and a half after Bell posted the message on Instagram in October 2025. That post marked the couple’s 12th wedding anniversary. Bell, 45, and Shepard have been married since 2013 and have long built part of their public image around blunt humor, oversharing, and a very unfiltered look at married life.
Still, this time, plenty of people felt the joke crossed a line.
‘I had no clue,’ Shepard said on the podcast. ‘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.”‘
The original caption came with a photo of the couple hugging and included a quote Bell said Shepard once told her after watching ‘Dateline,’ NBC’s long-running true crime series that has been on the air since 1992. In the caption, Bell 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.”‘
Why The Post Rubbed Some Fans The Wrong Way
Some followers laughed it off as classic Kristen and Dax humor. Others were not into it at all, especially given the subject matter. One commenter wrote, ‘Joking about the violence others have actually had to face isn’t it.’ That criticism picked up traction fast, with some users calling the caption tone-deaf rather than funny.
Bell never directly addressed the criticism in public. She did, however, speak warmly about Shepard just a few months later while promoting ‘Nobody Wants This,’ the Netflix romantic comedy series that debuted in 2024 and quickly became a major hit.
‘There’s nothing that he won’t do to take care of me,’ Bell said in February. ‘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.’
So where does that leave this controversy now? Mostly as another reminder that what plays as dark humor inside a marriage does not always go over well once it hits millions of feeds.
