Dax Shepard was not an expert in navigating the controversy surrounding his wife, Kristen Bell. It had been nearly six months since the 'Parenthood' alum sparked outrage with a glib anniversary post that included a reference to murder. On the April 6 episode of his 'Armchair Expert' podcast, Dax revealed that he was in the dark about the backlash at the time.
"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."
In fact, the 51-year-old admitted that he first heard about the public pushback about "a week and a half" after the 'Frozen' actress shared the anniversary post.
"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.'"
In October, Kristen uploaded a picture of her and Dax, who tied the knot in 2013, sharing a sweet embrace. The caption on Instagram read: "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.'"
While many of Kristen's followers found the caption amusing, some were not so enthused. One user wrote: "Joking about the violence others have actually had to face isn't right, joke or not."
Though the 'Nobody Wants This' star never addressed the controversy head-on, she did shed light on Dax's love for her months later. "There's nothing that he won't do to take care of me," she told People 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."
