Not hiding it. Dax Shepard has never shied away from opening up about his struggle with addiction and his rocky road to sober living.
The Parenthood alum married Kristen Bell in October 2013, and the pair share two daughters, Lincoln and Delta. One year before they exchanged vows, Shepard admitted that he and the Veronica Mars actress were total “opposites.”
“All the things I’d done were terrifying to her, and she had a hard time believing I would ever be able to stay married and monogamous and a father and all those things. For the first year and a half [that] we were together, that was what we battled over almost weekly,” he told Playboy in 2012, noting that he had a history of drinking and using “cocaine, opiates, marijuana, diet pills, pain pills, everything.”
Shepard later turned his life around and pursued sobriety. After nearly being clean for nearly 16 years, the “Armchair Expert” podcast host revealed that he suffered a relapse in his pill addiction after a string of different events — including a major motorcycle accident — led him to misuse painkillers. Despite his roadblock, Bell was still “nothing but supportive” of her husband.
“Eventually, he couldn’t hide it from her any longer and he had to come clean. She was nothing but supportive and there’s no blame or anger on her side – just love, care and determination to get through this together,” a source told Us Weekly exclusively in October 2020. “Her heart aches for Dax after what he went through with his dad, and she’s beyond proud of him for turning his life around whilst openly addressing his demons head-on.”
Following his candid revelation, Shepard thanked Bell and his podcast cohost, Monica Padman, for giving him the space and time he needed to heal.
“I can’t imagine having to admit that to other people and feeling as safe as I did that you guys wouldn’t hate me. I hated me at that point and so, to be able to tell you guys and feel unconditionally loved and that I would be accepted was really special,” he said in December 2020. “It saved my life. … Even with two surgeries and a relapse and shame spiral and all this stuff, still a great year for me.”
Scroll down to look back at some of Shepard’s most powerful quotes about his sobriety journey.
