Dax Shepard has finally addressed the reaction to Kristen Bell’s much-discussed anniversary Instagram post, months after the caption sparked widespread criticism for its dark humour.
On the Monday, April 6 episode of Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, the 51-year-old actor spoke with comedian Nikki Glaser and reflected on the post that drew attention for referencing something he’d once said to Bell.
The topic came up after Glaser—who is among the hosts of this year’s Golden Globes—explained she had considered making a joke about the viral caption during the ceremony. She ultimately dropped it, saying it was “old news by then,” and adding that she didn’t “want to make his life harder.”
Shepard, intrigued, asked what she had planned to say.
“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 for Christmas, or captions for his anniversary post. These are movies nominated tonight,” Glaser replied as Shepard laughed.
Her unused line referenced Bell’s October 2025 anniversary post, where the actor shared a photo of the couple embracing with a caption quoting something Shepard had told her after they watched an episode of Dateline:
“Happy 12th wedding anniversary to the man who, after and 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,’”
The post quickly split opinion online. Some found it consistent with the pair’s edgy sense of humour, including Howie Mandel, who commented: “He should write for Hallmark.”
Even Dateline’s official account appeared to play along, writing, “Screenshotted.”
But others felt the joke crossed a line, arguing it treated domestic violence too casually. One commenter wrote: “Crazy thing to joke about honestly. Sincerely, someone who thankfully survived,” while another added: “What a wild thing to post during Domestic Violence Awareness month.”
Speaking on the podcast, Shepard said he wasn’t aware of the backlash at first and only learned about it more than a week later. He explained: “I was alerted by someone that this whole thing was happening. 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.”
He added that he only realised something was going on after someone reached out to check on him—though Glaser seemed more irritated by the outrage than either Shepard or Bell.
“But it’s like, that’s the thing that bothers me is, like, this is what you’re talking about right now of all things? You f—ing losers. You’re wasting your time getting angry about this. Go read some files,” she argued.