Kristen Bell unexpectedly showed up at Dax Shepard’s dad’s deathbed in December 2012, a touching gesture that still makes him emotional.
During a recent live taping of the “All There Is With Anderson Cooper” podcast at the New Orleans Book Festival, Dax cried while reflecting on how Bell was there for him when his father, Dave Shepard, was dying of small-cell carcinoma.
Dax, 51, explained that, at the time, he was “growing really upset” that so many people were visiting Dave in the hospital because he had to comfort them instead of coping with the situation himself.
“I was starting to resent that I couldn’t just be in there with my dad, and I was starting to get quite overwhelmed with that,” he recalled.
So, the “Armchair Expert” podcast host took a breather and went in his car to call Bell, 45, to “vent” about the situation.
“And she said, ‘It’s OK, I’m here. Look to the left,’” he said, revealing that Bell — who was seven months pregnant with the couple’s first child at the time — flew from California to Detroit to be there for Dax.
Dax said through tears, “She knew I was struggling and she had flown and not told me and figured out where this hospital was standing next to the car.”
After Bell arrived, the couple went inside the hospital to see Dave, who couldn’t speak, but still got to feel the “Good Place” star’s pregnant belly.
“Look how cute she looks with that belly,” Dax said, as a photo of the emotional moment flashed on the screen for the audience.
“She’s a gangster, y’all,” he added of Bell.
Three months after Dave’s death, Bell gave birth to the couple’s first child, daughter Lincoln, in March 2013.
They later welcomed daughter Delta in December 2014.
On Father’s Day 2022, Dax shared the same photo of his late father rubbing his wife’s belly at the hospital.
“Happy Father’s Day to my fellow Dads. Of all the clubs I’ve tried to join/identities I’ve tried on, this one is my favorite,” Dax wrote.
Dax added of his dad, “I miss and adore both the cute baby and the car-selling-assassin that he was. I could/should have told him more.”
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