Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard’s Daughters Know “Daddy Is an Addict and He’s in Recovery”

Kristen Bell wants to make sure her children are comfortable talking to her and husband Dax Shepard about anything and everything.

The actor revealed in a new interview with Real Simple for the magazine’s “Game Changers” issue and first-ever celebrity cover that she and Shepard have emphasized an open line of communication when it comes to their 9-year-old daughter Lincoln and 8-year-old daughter Delta. “I hate the word ‘taboo.’ I think it should be stricken from the dictionary. There should be no topic that’s off the table for people to talk about,” she told the outlet.

She went on to explain that while their approach to parenting may be “shocking” for some, it’s become a keystone in their family. Bell said, “I know it’s shocking, but I talk to my kids about drugs, and the fact that their daddy is an addict and he’s in recovery, and we talk about sex. There are all these ‘hard topics’ that don’t have to be if you give the person on the other end your vulnerability and a little bit of credit.” The Good Place star added, “Making amends and apologizing is an important thing in our family, because humans leave carnage wherever they go. I really respect when someone does something wrong or hurtful and they apologize. I’m like, ‘Yeah, right on.’ That’s important. If there’s one thing I want to teach my kids, it’s how to make amends—and that it’s for themselves, so they can like who’s in the mirror a little bit more.”

In the past, Shepard has also spoken about how he tries to be transparent with his two girls. In an interview with Chelsea Clinton on her podcast In Fact with Chelsea Clinton from April 2021, the Parenthood actor revealed, “We explained, ‘Well, Daddy was on these pills for a surgery and then Daddy was a bad boy. He started getting his own pills.” He continued, “Yeah, we tell them the whole thing. The proudest I am of my children ever is when they admit something and say sorry. That to me is the single most impressive thing a little person can do, because it’s the bravest thing to own your shortcomings.”

In October 2020, Shepard shared on his own podcast Armchair Expert that he had relapsed after 16 years of sobriety. He explained that he had started taking opioids for pain following an ATV accident and then his usage quickly spiraled out of control. “I’m allowed to be on them at some dosage, because I have a prescription,” he said at the time. “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. I’m lying to other people, and I know I have to quit. 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.” He then told his wife, “I can’t imagine having to admit [the relapse] to other people and feeling as safe as I did that you guys wouldn’t hate me. I hated me at that point. So to be able to tell you guys, and feel unconditionally loved and that I would be accepted, was really special. It saved my life.”