Kristen Bell opens up as husband Dax Shepard relapses after 16 years of sobriety
Kristen Bell has said that husband Dax Shepard has relapsed but is "doing really great" and has vowed to stand by him and help him back after his years of sobriety were broken
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Kristen Bell has opened up about how her husband Dax Shepherd is doing after he relapsed following 16 years of sobriety.
The 40-year-old actress has spoken out on The Ellen DeGeneres Show about how she is moving forward with her husband, vowing to stand by him during this difficult time.
It has been about a month since Dax announced that he had relapsed but Kristen has insisted he is "doing really great".
During a Zoom interview with Ellen, Kristen says: "He is actually doing really great... Everybody is up against their own demons.
"Sometimes it's anxiety and depression. Sometimes it's substance abuse."
Kristen said that she is proud that her husband was honest about what had happened as they can now find a path back from where he is.
She continued: "The thing I love most about Dax is... that he was able to tell me and tell us and say, 'We need a different plan.'
"We have a plan: if he has to take medication for any reason, I have to administer it. But he was like, 'We need a stronger plan.'"
Kristen added that Dax told her: "'I was faltering. I have to do some sort of emotional work to figure out why I wanted to use again.'"
Kristen said that she admires that Dax is "addicted to growth" and continued to say: "He's addicted to evolving.
"He was like, 'I don't want to risk this family and I did, so let's put new things in place to make sure it doesn't happen again.'"
Kristen said that she and Shepard are "going back to therapy" and that she "will continue to stand by him because he's very, very worth it."
Dax had revealed his relapse on the September 25 episode of Armchair Expert, titled "Day 7".
He explained that he used painkillers following a motorcycle accident and that coupled with dealing with his father's cancer diagnosis had been enough to tip the balance again.
Dax said: "So eight years into sobriety, I have not done a single shady thing. There was nothing gray.
“I immediately called my sponsor and I said, ‘I’m in a ton of pain and I got to work all day, and we have friends that have Vicodin.’ And he said, ‘Okay, you can take a couple Vicodin to get through the day at work but you have to go to the doctor, and you have to get a prescription and you have to have Kristen dole out the prescription."
There was "no problem" with this arrangement to begin with but when he was given the responsibility of giving his father his medication, the urge to take more painkillers proved too strong.
He continued: "So I give him a bunch of Percocet and then I go, I have a prescription for this, and I was in a motorcycle accident, and I’m gonna take some too.”
Shepard recalled that he “probably took twice of what my other prescription was.”
He confessed to taking the pills to Kristen the next day and she said: "You clearly need to call someone in AA, but I would say you’re f***ed up from this accident, you got high with your dad, keep it moving.
"You don’t need to redefine it. You didn’t lose eight years, which was so comforting."
But Dax admitted that he started altering when he would take the medication and "then I get hurt again."
He explained that he began purchasing his own pills and then began lying to the people around him.
It was then that he realised that he needed to quit.
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