Dax Shepard’s recent drug relapse (and the lies he told to hide it) take a sad toll on his marriage to Kristen Bell.
As their seventh anniversary nears, Dax Shepard confesses to hiding a drug relapse from to Kristen Bell
The lies were eating him up inside. On the Sept. 25 episode of his Armchair Expert podcast, Dax Shepard confessed that after getting sober 16 years ago amid a cocaine and alcohol addiction, he’d relapsed. Eight years in, he got high by taking more painkillers than he’d been prescribed following a motorcycle accident. He said he “felt bad” about what he’d done and stopped. This summer, however, he did it again, for months abusing opioids after being injured in ATV and motorcycle accidents. “I start getting really scared, and I’m starting to feel really lonely,” Dax explained of concealing his addiction, which left him with “this enormous secret.”
It festered and grew as he hid his problem from his wife, Kristen Bell.
Dax, 45, admitted he’d even started “gaslighting” Kristen, 40, as he silently spiraled — until he couldn’t take it anymore and in mid-september confessed that he’d been getting high. Though he’s now a few weeks clean, it’s changed everything. “Dax can say that his relapse was just a slip, but his sobriety revelation definitely affected his marriage,” shares an insider, who says the dark secret has been devastating for Dax’s family. “Kristen is all about openness and trust, and not telling her about his relapse right away was a betrayal.”
A HELLISH SITUATION
Kristen and Dax’s romance has been rife with drama since it began 13 years ago. He was reluctant to commit early on and since welcoming daughters Lincoln, 7, and Delta, 5, the couple have fought bitterly at times. In January, Kristen admitted that an argument sparked by a note she wrote asking Dax for help around the house got so heated, they
“both blacked out,” slept apart and didn’t talk for three days.
They quickly reconciled, but they’re now under a microscope. It hasn’t helped that days before Dax’s relapse reveal, Kristen was criticized after admitting she caught their girls drinking Dax’s non-alcoholic beer while on a school Zoom call. “I’m like, ‘What must these other parents and teachers think of me?’ ” she said, later confessing they let the girls order NA beer at restaurants too. “And then I remind myself, ‘You don’t care, Kristen.’ ”
But she does care — deeply — about Dax’s deceit. “While she’s supportive, Kristen is also wary,” says the insider. “Dax straight-out lied to her about his relapse.” So as they prepare to celebrate their seventh wedding anniversary on Oct. 16, there’s work to do. “They still love each other, 100 percent,” notes the insider, “but the trust they had has been destroyed. Dax needs to gain it back.”