Dax Shepard is looking back on how Bradley Cooper’s candid advice encouraged him to go public with his relapse.
The Parenthood alum, 49, had been sober for 16 years when he confessed in September 2020 that he started abusing painkillers after a motorcycle accident. During the Tuesday, February 27, episode of the “Dinner’s on Me” podcast, Shepard explained his decision to tell fans about the setback.
“The last thing I wanted to do was go in public, seven days after the collapse of everything, and share that with people,” he told host Jesse Tyler Ferguson. “But it would have felt so dishonest.”
He continued, “The bond and the agreement you have with the audience would have just felt like a huge violation of all these people who had been listening for years and maybe looking to me as a role model.”
Shepard had a change of heart after a conversation with Cooper, 49.
“He said, ‘Are you going to — ‘cause I told him I relapsed. He said, ‘Are you going to tell everyone?’” Shepard recalled. “And I said, at that point, I was like, ‘I don’t think so.'”
He confessed he was “so afraid of losing that thing” that fans liked most about him when Cooper hit him with a sober reality. (Cooper has abstained from drugs and alcohol since he was 29.)
“And he said, ‘Well, let me tell you this. There’s nothing helpful about a guy that’s 16 years sober, and married to Kristen Bell, and is rich. What’s helpful to somebody is someone who just ate s–t and gets back up,’” he said.
The remark served as a “wow” moment for Shepard, who added, “So, if I’m sincere about what I like about it, [which] is that I’m being helpful, then I really have only a single option.”
Ferguson, 48, agreed that Shepard had the “obligation, for sure,” to let the public in on what was going on.
Shepard had no problem giving Cooper “credit” for his decision, noting, “He earned it. And he’s so sexy, too. It’d be easier if he wasn’t so sexy.”
Upon making his relapse revelation on his “Armchair Expert” podcast in September 2020, Shepard shared that he was seven days sober after being high during a celebration for his 16-year milestone.
Shepard noted that he told Bell, 43, whom he married in October 2013, about the relapse, sought help and attended meetings after taking “30 mil Oxys” every day.
“I’ve had a lot of friends that I’ve watched go through this whole cycle, and I finally have the humility to say I will not be any different,” said Shepard. “I won’t be special. I won’t be smarter. I will be exactly like everyone else.”
A source later told Us Weekly that Bell was “nothing but supportive” of her husband while he pursued his sobriety again. “Dax chose to keep this a secret from Kristen because he felt so ashamed at the time and didn’t want to hurt her,” the insider exclusively told Us. “They have such a strong marriage and have always been there for each other through thick and through thin. … Eventually, he couldn’t hide it from her any longer and he had to come clean.”
