Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard have two daughters. They both know their 'daddy is an addict'.

Kristen Bell is a big believer in having an open relationship with her daughters.

The actor, who shares two children with husband Dax Shepard, opened up to Real Simple this week about having candid conversations as a family.

"I hate the word 'taboo'. I think it should be stricken from the dictionary," she shared. "There should be no topic that's off the table for people to talk about."

Watch Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard star side by side in the trailer for Hit and Run. Post continues below. 

In the interview, Bell shared that the couple's daughters, nine-year-old Lincoln and eight-year-old Delta, have been a part of some very 'grown up' conversations.

"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," she shared.

"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."

Shepard practices this honest policy in his own life too, never shying away from talking about his struggles with addiction.

According to Us Magazine, the actor has a history of alcohol abuse as well as using "cocaine, opiates, marijuana, diet pills, and pain pills".

After successfully being clean for 16 years, Shepard suffered from a relapse in 2012 after a motorcycle accident. 

"I immediately called my sponsor, and I said, 'I’m in a tonne of pain and I [have] got to work all day, and we have friends that have Vicodin," he shared on his podcast The Armchair Expert.

"And he said, 'Okay, you can take a couple Vicodin to get through the day at work, but you have to go to the doctor, and you have to get a prescription and you have to have Kristen dole out the prescription.'" 

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This unfortunately led to a misuse of pills and ultimately his relapse. 

"Eventually, he couldn’t hide it from [Bell] any longer and he had to come clean," a source told Us Magazine. "She was nothing but supportive and there’s no blame or anger on her side, just love, care and determination to get through this together."

He later relapsed again in 2020 after he began taking Vicodin daily.

"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, and I know that's an amount that's going to result in a pretty bad withdrawal. And I start getting really scared, and I'm starting to feel really lonely. And I just have this enormous secret," he explained on Armchair Expert at the time.

"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. I won't be special. I won't be smarter. I will be exactly like everyone else."

When Bell and Shepard first met in 2007, there were "no sparks" between them.

But two weeks later, they met again at a Los Angeles Kings-Detroit Red Wings hockey game. (Bell and Shepard are both Red Wings fans and from Detroit.) 

"We started to flirt, left, and then a day after that I get a text that says, 'Hi, this is Dax. I violated your privacy and got your number from Shawna. How do you feel about that?'" the Frozen star reminisced.

"And I was like, 'Excuse me? You sound stimulating.'"

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Soon after, they were dating.

After a brief separation early in their relationship, Shepard proposed in December 2009. They later wed in October 2013 at the Beverly Hills Courthouse after waiting for same-sex marriage to be legalised in solidarity with the LGBTQI community.

The couple welcomed their first child, Lincoln, in March 2013, and their second child, Delta, in December 2014.

Speaking to People, Bell opened up about the "comedic surprises" that come with motherhood. 

"It's like living in a Jim Carrey movie. Yesterday, I had to say out loud, 'Could you please stop using my toothbrush to wash your legs?' I said that. I never thought I would utter that sentence, but here we are," she said.

"The fact that I know that there are other people out there who know why I had to say that and why I was a completely legitimate sentence. I don't know, it makes me feel a little bit more at peace."

Shepard also marvelled at how his daughters are growing up.

"They're creating novel ideas and thoughts. And so there's two more interesting people in the house that are computing the world differently than us and they can communicate it now. And it's really fun just to have more perspectives around. They're becoming more like bros for me."

Feature Image: Instagram @kristenanniebell.

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