Dax Shepard Reveals the 'Tipping Point' When He Decided to Come Clean About His Relapse

Dax Shepard previously opened up about his sobriety relapse, and now the actor is revealing the [...]

Dax Shepard previously opened up about his sobriety relapse, and now the actor is revealing the "tipping point" that pushed him to come clean publicly. Shepard sat down with Chelsea Clinton on her podcast, In Fact With Chelsea Clinton, and shared that it was actually a close friend who convinced him to be honest with his fans about his relapse. "The tipping point that got me to be public about it was a really good friend of mine who happened to have the same sobriety date as myself," He explained. "We're the exact same age. … We're very, very similar, and I told him, of course, immediately."

Shepard told his friend that he really did not want to talk about the relapse on his own podcast, Armchair Expert, but his friend had some insight he could not deny was valid. Shepard recalled, "He goes, 'Look, if you're getting self-esteem from the number, that's silly. If you're getting self-esteem because you think that it's helpful to people, that's great, but if your goal then is actually to help people, it's so much more helpful that you relapsed than it is you being 16 years sober and married to Kristen Bell. That's not incredibly relatable to some dude who's struggling. But lying to the people you love just last month, that's pretty relatable.'"

Last year, Shepard shared his experience, revealing that he became addicted to opioids after being prescribed them for the pain he experienced after getting into a motorcycle accident. The former Punk'd star went on to explain that, along with telling his fans, he and Bell knew that he had to tell their two daughters: 6-year-old Delta and 8-year-old Lincoln. "They knew, like when I relapsed," he shared, "we explained, 'Well, Daddy was on these pills for his surgery and then Daddy was a bad boy and he started getting his own pills.' And, yeah, we tell them the whole thing."

He also shared that the girls are always aware when he is heading to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and recalled a story from a few years ago when he explained to them why he goes. "One of the cuter moments was, I wanna say my oldest daughter was 3 — back when my daughters really wanted to be with me 24 hours a day — and she said, 'Where are you going?' And I said, 'Well, I'm going to AA," Shepard recalled.

He continued, "She said, 'Why do you have to go?' I go, 'Because I'm an alcoholic. If I don't go there then I'll drink and I'll be a terrible dad.' And she said, 'Can I go?' And I said, 'Well, no, you gotta be an alcoholic.' And she goes, 'I'm gonna be an alcoholic.' And I said, 'You know, you might become one. The odds are not in your favor. But you're not there yet.'"

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