Kristen Bell Revealed She Will "Always Love" Dax Shepard In An Emotional Instagram Post After Opening Up About His Recent Relapse
"I love you, Dax Shepard, and I always will."
Kristen Bell has paid tribute to Dax Shepard on their seventh wedding anniversary just a week after revealing she was "standing by" her husband following his recent relapse.
Back in September, Dax revealed that he'd recently relapsed after 16 years of sobriety when an ATV accident led to him taking opioids.
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"After I ride sometimes on the track, I feel I'm entitled to take two Vicodin at the end of the day because I am in pain," he said during an episode of his podcast.
"For the last eight weeks ... I'm on them all day," he went on. "I'm allowed to be on them at some dosage because I have a prescription, and then I'm also augmenting that. And then all the prescriptions run out, and I'm now just taking 30 mil Oxys that I've bought whenever I decide I can do [it]."
"I'm lying to other people, and I know I have to quit," he went on. "But my tolerance is going up so quickly that I'm now in a situation where I'm taking, you know, eight 30s a day."
"I know that's an amount that's going to result in a pretty bad withdrawal," Dax added. "And I start getting really scared, and I'm starting to feel really lonely. And I just have this enormous secret."
Dax went on to explain that he'd eventually told Kristen about the relapse which prompted him to seek help. However, Dax also added that he'd been concerned about the effect "coming clean publicly" might have on Kristen.
"Kristen doesn't deserve for the next six months for every fucking interview she does to be, 'Oh, Dax relapsed,'" he said. "I'm sorry and I'm embarrassed I've put other people in this situation."
Well, two weeks later, Kristen publicly addressed Dax's relapse and revealed that she'd be "continuing to stand by" her husband, while working on strengthening their relationship.
"He is actually doing really great," Kristen said of Dax during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. "Everybody is up against their own demons. Sometimes it's anxiety and depression, sometimes it's substance abuse."
"The thing that I love most about Dax is that he was able to tell me and tell us and say, 'We need a different plan,'" she continued. "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 went on to recall the exact words Dax used when he told her about his relapse: "I was faltering. I have to do some sort of emotional work to figure out why I wanted to use again."
"He's addicted to evolving," Kristen said. "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.' We're going back to therapy. I love that he's addicted to growth."
"I will continue to stand by him because he's very, very worth it," Kristen added.
Well, the actor has now marked their seventh wedding anniversary in traditional style by revealing that the pair had once again forgotten the date.
"Well, it's that time of year again," Kristen wrote alongside a photo of the couple. "The anniversary of the day each year when we say to each other 'wasn't our anniversary last week at some point?'"
This follows last year's anniversary post in which Kristen informed followers that neither she nor Dax "will ever remember" the date that they got married.
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"We were reminded by family and friends that at some point last week, it was our 5 year wedding anniversary," she wrote on Instagram. "In truth, neither of us remember which day ... I will never remember the date of our anniversary @daxshepard, and i know you wont either. And thats just one more thing i love about us."