Dax Shepard breaks silence on Kristen Bell’s ‘tone-deaf’ anniversary post: ‘I had no clue’

Dax Shepard was never worried about his wife Kristen Bell’s controversial anniversary post that was branded “tone-deaf” and received a ton of backlash.

Shepard addressed the controversy for the first time on Monday’s episode of his “Armchair Expert” podcast, and said he actually had “no clue” about the uproar it caused.

Bell received backlash last October — which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month — for celebrating their wedding anniversary with the Instagram 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.’ ❤️.”

Shepard said the post had been up for a week and a half before he even realized there was backlash from people accusing the actress of making light of domestic violence.

“I was alerted by someone that this whole thing was happening,” Shepard recalled to his guest on Monday’s episode, Nikki Glaser. “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.”

Shepard remained unbothered when Glaser told him the joke she almost said while hosting the 2026 Golden Globes in January, telling her it was “very funny.”

Glaser cracked, “‘Die My Love. If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You. Sorry, Baby.’ These are not just captions to Dax Shepard’s Instagram post for Mother’s Day. Or, like … these are not just Dax Shepard captions for his anniversary post. These are movies nominated tonight.”

Bell has never commented on the backlash she received, but she did turn off her social media comments shortly after the post.

She also avoided talking about the controversy during her appearance on the“Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” and opted out of her “Today” show appearance the following week.

A rep for the National Network to End Domestic Violence told Page Six exclusively in a statement at the time, “There’s nothing funny about domestic violence ‘jokes’ that trivialize the very real fear, trauma and pain that millions of victims and survivors face each day.”

“Especially during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we all have a responsibility to support victims and survivors, to invest in proven solutions and to speak about this issue with the seriousness it deserves,” the organization concluded.

Bell, 45, and Shepard, 51, have been married since October 2013. They share daughters Lincoln, 13, and Delta, 11.