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Home / Entertainment

Fans say Kristen Bell’s anniversary tribute to husband Dax Shepard ‘not funny’

NZ Herald
21 Oct, 2025 01:57 AM2 mins to read

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American actress Kristen Bell is being criticised for a recent tribute to her husband that appeared to make light of domestic violence.

Sharing a photo of her husband Dax Shepard to Instagram, Bell shared a personal story to mark their 12th wedding anniversary.

“I would never kill you. A lot of men have killed their wives at a certain point. Even though I’m heavily incentivised to kill you, I never would”, she recalled Shepard telling her.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by kristen bell (@kristenanniebell)

While several of the couple’s celebrity friends commented amused responses, fans were unimpressed with the supposed joke, which was shared during US Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

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“Not funny at all. What kind of man says that to his wife? Oh wait, I know exactly what kind. Get out now, Kristen,” one commenter said.

“Everyone who thinks this is funny: talk to a DV survivor or the loved one of a DV who was murdered. Please think about the impact you are having,” another wrote.

Neither Bell nor Shepard have addressed the backlash.

The actress, who stars opposite Adam Brody in Netflix’s hit Nobody Wants This, was recently reminded about the special day by entertainment reporters.

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At the premiere of the show’s second season last week, Bell told Entertainment Tonight she had forgotten about her upcoming wedding anniversary.

“It helps that he doesn’t remember either. No one’s at fault here, right? We’re just not great with dates.”

Kristen Bell forgetting her own wedding anniversary has us in TEARS. 😭 pic.twitter.com/JqEpQLIMqK

— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) October 17, 2025

Bell and Shepard have been open about their marital problems in the past, publicly detailing the various ups and downs of their relationship since they got together in 2007.

In September 2024, Bell said Shepard was her “polar opposite”.

“We are the antithesis of each other. We argue about absolutely everything, but there is a foundational trust that we’ve built that keeps us together and is quite stimulated by one another’s opinions.”

On a 2020 episode of his podcast Life is Short, she told fellow actor Justin Long one of the couple’s arguments caused them both to “blackout” in anger.

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