Kristen Bell Opens Up About Standing By Dax Shepard After Latest Relapse

Addiction is something that never stops being a challenge, as Dax Shepard shared with his recent revelation that he'd fallen off the wagon after 16 years of sobriety.

During an appearance with Ellen DeGeneres, Kristen Bell opened up a little bit about how the family has made adjustments in the wake of his relapse, while revealing some of the processes they'd already had in place to try and help him remain clean and sober.

And despite this setback, Kristen still has nothing but praise, love and support for her husband.

She told Ellen that one of the things that impresses her so much about Dax is his self-awareness. Even as he relapsed from his sobriety, she said, "He was able to tell me and tell us and say, we need a different plan."

Kristen offered a glimpse into how the couple has managed his addiction issues, for example saying, "If he has to take medication for any reason, I have to administer it."

In this moment, though, Dax told her they needed "a stronger plan."

According to Kristen, he said, "I was faltering and I have to do some sort of emotional work to figure out why I wanted to use again." It's an incredible statement of awareness and vulnerability, willing to acknowledge that there was something happening in his life to drive him into these habits, so it is his responsibility to do the work and figure it out.

"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 shared. ". And he’s-- you know, we’re going back to therapy ... and I will continue to stand by him, ‘cause he’s very, very worth it."

She described him as "addicted to growth, addicted to evolving." Luckily for her, his devotion to her and their family, and even that evolution she talked about, was strong enough for him to be honest with her about his relapse and then partner with her to work through it.

One factor that may have had at least some influence is the fact that Dax has likely been in pretty severe pain after a serious motorcycle accident shattered his hand, and apparently there are still some residual complications there.

"His hands are still hands," Kristen said, sharing video of Dax's hand and detailing all the odd lumps and bumps. "He’s got the right amount of knuckles, they’re just not in the right places."

It definitely looked off, and it was enough that Ellen immediately declared, "I'm going to have to go to therapy now just after seeing that."

Later in the episode, Ellen played a game with Kristen to raise money for breast cancer research that saw the actress grabbing various things around the house. In one instance, it was something she couldn't sleep without, which proved to be her puppy.

She'd earlier shared the sad story about the recent passing of her other dog, using that opportunity to urge people to take in senior dogs and share that love with them no matter how many years they may have left.

But it was when Ellen asked her to grab the latest thing she bought off of Amazon that the host could not handle what Kristen came up with. For her part, Kristen seemed incredibly pleased with her purchase, even showing off the instructions for use.

Ellen, though, was just uncomfortable at having seen it at all. "That also could qualify as the embarrassing thing," Ellen insisted, but Kristen was not embarrassed at all.

It's worth it not to spoil the surprise, so you'll just have to look for it toward the end of the video below:

Got a story or tip for us? Email TooFab editors at tips@toofab.com.