What to Know
People are going to talk. When one half of that couple is continually talking about their relationship on their hit podcast, Armchair Expert, it’s going to have people chattering even more. In a new episode of his podcast, Dax Shepard sat down to discuss a range of topics, and his marriage to Kristen Bell came up. Though the pair have perhaps made some off-putting jokes in the past, there’s continually been speculation about whether or not Kristen needs to get out of this relationship due to Dax’s alleged abuse. Of course, Dax had many things to say about this!
Dax is convinced that the public outrage over an Instagram post comes from people who have never been married.
Some celebrities might want to let their PR reps take a quick skim of their social media posts before hitting ‘post.’ Actress Kristen Bell may be one of those people. On an episode of Dax Shepard’s podcast, Armchair Expert, he discussed with his guest, comedian Nikki Glaser, about those who have been coming for his 12-year marriage to Kristen.
A good chunk of the controversy started when Kristen shared what she probably hoped would be considered a cheeky photo of her and her husband kissing on Instagram with the 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.'” This was followed by a heart emoji. Yikes.
We can see how some might not see how making a joke about femicide in an anniversary social media post is funny.
On his podcast, Dax told Nikki that so many people who were “outraged” by the whole thing and claim that he’s “beating Kristen” aren’t even married themselves.
Okay, does that even really matter, though? Only married people get to have opinions about relationships and potential abuse? That doesn’t seem right either.
Dax claims that the entire thing felt insulting towards his “gangster” wife.
As he went on to further clear the air about this controversial incident on his podcast, Dax couldn’t help but share that he actually found the entire thing pretty “insulting” towards his wife. He said, “Don’t insult my wife. She doesn’t need your protection. You don’t need to diminish her. That’s what pisses me off.”
We don’t necessarily agree that people showing concern for Kristen is diminishing in any way, but okay. We can see that this is a very tender subject for him.
He went on to clarify that his wife “has total f–king autonomy and is a gangster.” He didn’t think it was fair for people to say that they “need to come in and protect her” because it’s “offensive” and “she’s f–king good.”
He did not mince words, so perhaps this is the last we’ll hear on the topic from these two.
When things went down with this much-talked-about social media post, Dax advised his family not to defend him.
Dax went on to share that when the bulk of the backlash was taking place and people were speculating about whether or not he abuses his wife, he really had no idea at first.
He shared on Armchair Expert, “Well, I was alerted by someone that this whole thing was happening. I didn’t know. Kristen knew through her publicist but didn’t tell me.” What a thing to be a celebrity and have absolutely zero clue that everyone is talking about you!
He also discussed that he felt the need to send out a “blanket text” to his family to advise them not to defend him publicly, even if “people think [he] abused Kristen.”
We can see how he didn’t want to add further fuel to the fire there. That makes sense. Perhaps for future anniversaries, the two could just go old school and write one another a heartfelt note in a beautiful greeting card. No need to involve the public at all!
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