Dax Shepard is breaking his silence on the message from his wife that left a bad taste in the mouths of several fans. Back in October 2025, Kristen Bell commemorated her anniversary with Shepard by sharing a photo of the two hugging, along with an interesting caption. “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,’” Bell wrote.
The quippy statement sparked backlash, with commenters accusing the couple of trivializing domestic violence during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Bell limited the comments on the post shortly after sharing it, but the couple did not directly address the controversy at the time. Half a year later, Shepard spoke about the situation for the first time during his April 6 episode of Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard.
During his chat with guest Nikki Glaser, Shepard brought up “all these people that are convinced I’m beating Kristen,” saying anyone that took Bell’s statement seriously has “never been in a relationship.”
“We both grew up with domestic violence, so if you tell me how domestic violence works, I can tell you those guys who beat my mom’s *ss never went online to find out if it was acceptable from someone,” Shepard said. “That’s not actually how it works. … So you want to be really mad about a hypothetical scenario that’s never happened.”
He went on to say that the way these commenters were painting an inaccurate picture of Bell is what really upset him. “Don’t insult my wife. She doesn’t need your protection,” Shepard said. “You don’t need to diminish her. That’s what pisses me off.”
Though the public outcry eventually got to Shepard, he admitted that he didn’t even notice it for a while at first. “Kristen knew through her publicist, but didn’t tell me. So, I actually didn’t know,” Shepard recalled. “This was brought to my attention [after] a week and a half… I had no clue. Someone comforted me, and … I had to go to Kristen, ‘What are they talking about?’ And she’s like, ‘Oh, that post I had.'”
The topic came up because Glaser admitted she had planned to joke about the Instagram post in her 2026 Golden Globes monologue, but cut it due to her friendship with the couple and the fact that it was a bit outdated at that point. At Shepard’s behest, Glaser told her planned joke: “Die, My Love. If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You. Sorry, Baby,” Glaser said. “These are not just Dax Shepard captions for his anniversary post. These are movies nominated tonight.”
