Dax Shepard may be nearly two decades into his marriage with Kristen Bell, but the “Armchair Expert” host’s dating history includes a few famous names — and he’s still on friendly terms with most of his exes.
Over the years, Shepard has opened up on his podcast about past romances with Kate Hudson and Ashley Olsen, as well as a long-term relationship with Briegh Morrison that shaped how he thought about love before he ever met Bell.
Keep scrolling for a look at the women Shepard has dated and what he’s said about each:
Dax Shepard and Briegh Morrison
Before Bell came along, Shepard was in a serious relationship with Briegh Morrison that he once feared he’d never match emotionally. During an October 2025 episode of his “Armchair Expert” podcast, Shepard reunited with Morrison and revisited their split.
“The breakup was manageable, but I will say, for a while, I did think, ‘Well, I’ll never be in love with someone again in that way,’” he said. “I had a deep fear. I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t think I’ll ever really feel the way I felt about Briegh with anybody.’ I was quite scared of that.”
Morrison said the breakup hit her hard because she’d been planning a future with Shepard. “One of the hardest things about when we broke up was that I really had my head around we were gonna have kids,” she said. “We had a house now. [It] was gonna be this thing that I want. I was getting on in years.”
The two stayed close enough that Morrison was still visiting when Shepard started dating Bell — which initially raised eyebrows. “I think initially when Kristen and I started dating, you were still coming over a lot because my mom was living at my house. You were around even in like the first month or two we were dating,” Shepard recalled. “And she initially was like, ‘This is really wild. I’m not friends with any of my exes. I don’t hang out with any.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m friends with all mine pretty much.’”
He added, “Over time, she got super comfortable with it and absolutely at ease with it.”
Dax Shepard and Kate Hudson
Shepard and Hudson had a brief but intense romance in 2007 that he’s revisited more than once on his podcast. During an October 2026 episode of “Armchair Expert,” Shepard told guests Sara and Erin Foster that he first hit on Hudson while she was still married to Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson. He’d been introduced to her through her brother, Oliver Hudson.
“I gave her 111 percent of any charm I have. I just thought she was so f***ing beautiful, and I love [her movie] Almost Famous, and, oh my God, I can’t believe she’s here,” Shepard recalled.
After Kate and Robinson separated in 2006, Shepard made another move at a mutual friend’s dinner party. “From that night on, we were just together every single day,” he said of their short-lived 2007 fling. “[We were] making out, f***ing all day long.”
Kate and Shepard previously discussed the relationship on a 2019 episode of his podcast, where he admitted feeling outmatched by her career momentum. “I felt very ‘less than’ around you quite often,” he said. “I think I was just in the point where I was not gonna get hired for movies anymore — I had a bunch that didn’t work — and I’m like, ‘I don’t f***ing know what’s next’ and you were at that time making the most you ever made and having the most opportunity.”
Kate agreed the pace wasn’t sustainable. “Honestly, I wasn’t giving Dax what he needed, and I was making choices that were not relationship-focused,” she said. “I was not ready for what Dax — it was so much fun, it got hot fast … and I wasn’t prepared.”
Kate later dated Muse’s Matt Bellamy from 2010 to 2014 and is now engaged to musician Danny Fujikawa.
Dax Shepard and Ashley Olsen
Around the same era, Shepard also dated former child star Olsen — a relationship he described in glowing terms on a February 2022 episode of his podcast. Speaking with cohost Monica Padman, Shepard said he dated Olsen roughly “15 [or] 16 years ago,” placing the romance in the mid-2000s.
“She’s just the most wonderful person. She’s fantastic,” he said. “When we were dating, it was when she was putting all her energy and focus into launching that in a big way” — a reference to The Row, the fashion label Olsen cofounded with twin sister Mary-Kate Olsen. “So, I was able to see her meet with design teams and, like, run her s*** and she handled her [business], and it’s very impressive.”
Shepard added that the Olsen sisters are “sarcastic” and “major f***ing bosses.” He also admitted he was glad he hadn’t watched Full House before meeting her: “I probably wouldn’t have been able to be attracted to Ashley if I knew her as a baby. I just saw her at a party and was kind of thunderstruck by her beauty.”
Ashley has been married to Louis Eisner since 2022.
Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell
Shepard’s life changed when he met Bell at a dinner party in 2007. The two crossed paths again two weeks later at a Detroit Red Wings hockey game, where they bonded over their shared Michigan roots. Shepard proposed in 2009, and the couple welcomed daughter Lincoln in March 2013 before marrying later that year at the Beverly Hills County Clerk’s Office. Daughter Delta followed in December 2014.
Nearly two decades in, Shepard says the marriage is strong — but raising teens isn’t easy. “19 f***ing years, and I think we’re pretty good at handling our s***,” he said on “Armchair Expert” in October 2026. “We have a lot of s***, though. We have two children, and they are going through puberty, and that stressor … it throws the whole dynamic into a new zone that you have to figure out.”
Shepard said he and Bell occasionally “butt heads” over parenting decisions involving Lincoln and Delta. “I like to think if we didn’t have kids, it would be pretty smooth sailing. … But we don’t scream at each other or swear at each other,” he added.
This story was compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists.
