Dax Shepard has never shied away from speaking about his struggles with addiction in the past, and in particular, how they’ve impacted his marriage to Kristen Bell. Back in 2020, the 47-year-old actor revealed that he had relapsed on pain medication after nearly 16 years of sobriety, and now sources close to the couple revealed that they “needed a miracle” to keep their marriage afloat during that time.
The couple, who have been married for nearly nine years, have admitted to struggling throughout the pandemic, and the source revealed that while the stress of Shepard’s relapse was tough on Bell, “Kristen didn’t desert Dax; rather, she made sure he got the help he needed to get healthy again.”
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The pair shared back in 2021 that they turned to therapy to help make their marriage work, enforcing specific date nights and creating a space where they can air their grievances with each other. “If Kristen has an issue, she talks to Dax about it before losing her temper,” the source shared of this method. “So many of their problems have been resolved by just sitting down to discuss them.”
Early last year, the actor also opened up about how he broke the news of his relapse to his children. “We explained, ‘Well, Daddy was on these pills for his surgery and then Daddy was a bad boy and he started getting his own pills.’” Shepard also added, “Yeah, we tell them the whole thing.”
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Shepard’s relapse came after an ATV accident in 2020 when, after breaking his hand, he was prescribed painkillers. “I loved having 16 years,” he said of keeping his relapse a secret. “I loved being an inspiration to people for sobriety. I was holding onto that so much. I was deriving so much of my self-esteem from that that I was really scared of not having that — and so I avoided losing that for a while.”
Shepard is now sober again and his relationship with Bell seems to be in a good place as well. “Today, at least, I feel better with six months than I had felt in 15 years,” he said last April.
