Dax Shepard and his podcast co-producer, Monica Padman, were on Jimmy Kimmel Live in person last week. I was interested in learning more about their interview with Prince Harry. Except for saying how hot and down-to-earth Harry was in person, they didn’t give much new information. They thought it was hilarious that they showed Harry the calendar of male body parts that Monica made for Dax, which was the cringiest part of the interview in my opinion.
For the first part of the interview, Dax was on with Jimmy solo. He talked about his 25 pound weight gain, which is something he decided to do as he’s always wanted to be in a Marvel movie. He hasn’t landed a part or anything, it was just a goal of his to get big. He said he wanted to be Elastic Man, which Jimmy pointed out is a DC character. After that Dax went on an extended rant about how his wife of eight years, Kristen Bell, always gets more attention than he does. It was supposed to be a bit but it came across as somewhat bitter. Here’s more, and I’m including some of what Monica said too.
Dax on how Kristen is more successful and famous than him
Dax: My wife is more successful than me. So the pattern of our life, this has happened numerous times, I find out that I was a Jeopardy clue and she goes ‘oh yeah isn’t it fun?’ I realized, not only you already did it but it wasn’t exciting enough to tell me so now I feel stupid.Another classic one is I have 16 years of sobriety, which I lost, let’s not get into that. I posted something about it, no one gave a sh-t because they shouldn’t. Then my wife wrote this beautiful thing about congratulating me. That became a whole new cycle. America was celebrating Kristen for being so kind to me on my anniversary. I was like ‘did you get 16 years today?’
I thought that I finally had her. I go ‘on Friday Obama is going to read a question I asked him, he’s going to talk about me a little bit.’ She for the first time ever was like ‘wow, that’s amazing, I’m jealous.’ Cut to Friday, can’t wait for Obama to read my question and answer it. [Obama went on about how much his whole family loves The Good Place and Kristen]. So I got to interview him after that, he’s going to be our first guest on Spotify.
Monica on Prince Harry
Monica: He was so normal, I was so blown away. He was already handsome and then adding his normalcy to it, full tingles.Dax on talking to Prince Harry about his body
Dax: This is the best part of the interview. When I started talking about [Prince Harry’s] body, Monica is like ‘Dax is obsessed with male bodies, I make him this calendar.’ Monica got this [calendar] out. [shows calendar].Monica on whether she’s the ‘third wheel in Dax and Kristen’s tricycle of love’
Monica: Absolutely, we’re in a threeway marriage. We refer to it.‘You don’t mean that in a sexual way?’
Dax: Unfortunately not, it’s all the responsibilities of two wives and none of the sex.
Monica: yetMonica has not dated somebody seriously
Monica: I told everyone yeah.
Dax: We say we want her to find love and our marriage would fall apart without her. She came and lived with us in quarantine.
Monica: It hit critical mass a month in because Kristen ‘got covid’ and was quarantining. At the same time Dax broke his hand, couldn’t make food, couldn’t help with anything. Then I was there, like ‘I have to take care of all these children while they’re on vacation. OK bye.’ I left. Like many marriages in quarantine ours ended in divorce.
[From Jimmy Kimmel Live on YouTube]
Last summer when Dax was struggling with addiction, before he opened up about it and kicked opiates again, he said in an interview about Kristen that “America’s sweetheart has some character defects.” It just came across as nasty. Plus these two have admitted that they’ve gone days without talking to each other – multiple times. I think this is their dynamic and that they’re going to stay together, but it doesn’t sound healthy! It seems like Dax has a major chip on his shoulder and finds it emasculating that Kristen gets more attention and accolades.
Also, I hope that Monica is able to break out on her own someday. It sounds like she’s enforcing her boundaries at least. Plus she has her own podcast now.
Here’s that interview:
photos via Instagram
Has anyone confirmed that these two truly like each other?
Yeah, they’re so weird. They joke about their resentments a lot. It’s cringey.
If they were in the British royal family, I’d be concerned for her life.
Good grief that’s some palpable resentment. Both of them never have anything nice to say about the other but he is going too far here. This reads like a therapy session and he’s on friggin Kimmel.
Their brand of the bickering odd couple is not funny, it’s uncomfortable. Pull the plug already.
“Brand of bickering odd couple”, you hit the nail on the head there!
They make me so uncomfortable, especially knowing that they have small children at home being raised in this toxic haze of resentment, silent treatments, explosive fights (as they have admitted to), and weird competition between parents. I can only imagine the competitive games they play with their children. It’s really not cute, at all.
And I do not fault a person for having addictions (especially as a 38 year old who has seen so many in my generation fall to an opiate bullet that many of us only dodged only by chance). But the way these two talk about it is also like it’s a competition for a bickering odd couple to pick at each other over. Not a good situation for long-term recovery for Dax, not good for those kids.
Yes, yikes. And now he looks steroidal, too. What could possibly go wrong?
I keep reading there is going to be an expose coming out about how all these Marvel and DC actors have been abusing steroids to get their fighting bodies.
Shepard has to keep up with the other guys in their friends group. Charlie Curtis is a trainer and Shepard seems to be infatuated with him. It’s interesting how Shepard always seems to be addicted to something drugs, exercise, attention, etc.
I was thinking the same thing. He is definitely on steroids.
Have they been abusing steroids, or have they themselves been abused? I think Marvel went too far myself.
To me it seems like they’re those people who probably should split, but won’t, because it would seem like failure, and they pride themselves on fighting to make it work. To me, that seems exhausting, unhappy, and unhealthy, but who knows.
I’m in a facebook group called ‘Why Get Married if You Hate your Spouse?’ and I swear these two should be the cover photo.
I just can’t with the “three way marriage” jokes. And for her to follow up with joking that eventually it’ll be sexual. I get that it’s their bit and “a joke” but if I was Kristen, Dax would have been out the door years ago. Boy bye!
Am I the only one that absolutely can not stand Monica? She’s extremely self-important, arrogant, and comes across as very condescending, almost bordering on rude. She also plays up the “I’m too cute” persona way too much.
Well she will fit right in with “I’m just too cute to handle” Kristen. It’s all shtick!
She really grates. Her oft-repeated refrain “I don’t liiiiike that” makes me want to punch her in the face. No on gives a shit what you like or don’t. And she really seems to think she’s smart despite being boring and of average intelligence, and Dax enables this delusions whilst simultaneously talking down to her. The whole dynamic is a shitshow. I used to listen to their podcast regularly (because they get good guests) but it has become too formulaic.
I’m getting a “beginning of the end” vibe from all this. They’ll announce a separation soon I bet.
The guy kristen is spotted out with working out alone with him, i realize he could be a trainer but their body language her smile i just felt the same seeing the pics, a separation announcement would not surprise me
The big problem with Dax is if you aren’t an avid Armchair Expert none of his outside interviews come across well. If you listen to his podcast regularly he is so open about everything, including all of his character defects and thoughts and emotions he really struggles with. He has admitted to struggling with feeling like he’s second fiddle to Kristen. However, he also recognizes that that is years misogyny built up in his brain, and he pushes past it. He praises her a lot. His upbringing, his relationship with his parents, stepdads, sexual abuse, addiction, and ego are all discussed openly and, from what i assume, pretty honestly. Sometimes he really grates on my nerves, but i like his podcast and i commend how hard he works on himself. I think Kristen is the same way; always working on herself, trying to listen and learn, dealing with her anxiety, but she doesn’t have a podcast where she discusses it.
Not everyone is well adjusted. Some people really have to work to keep themselves in check. He’s pretty self aware, and in a world where this is increasingly a dying trait, I respect him for that. HIm and Kristen are both a lot to handle, and they have chosen to work to handle each other. I don’t know if it will work forever, but they do seem to love each other.
I think you might be confusing self-analysis with full on narcissism. One if the big problems he has with the interviews on his podcast is that, in the end, every interview reverts back to him as the main topic. Lots of people have issues and go to therapy. This guy has to be the loudest voice in the room. If he was more self aware, he would know when to shut his mouth and actually listen to other people.
There’s also a difference between being self aware/knowing why you feel something like jealousy or resentment and actually working to shift your perspective. If you’re constantly marinating in these negative feelings but then logically talking yourself out of them (“oh that’s just misogyny, that’s wrong I shouldn’t feel that way”) that’s not really doing anything to address the emotion itself – which isn’t logical. It strikes me almost as a get out of jail free card that he can say whatever negative feelings he has and then self-analyze and say he knows it’s wrong and then everyone applauds him for being so self-aware.
Good point. I don’t think being aware of being misogynistic actually precludes someone from being misogynistic. If he’s telling you who he is, believe him.
Monica and their daughters are the only ones I am worried about in this cluster. I just hope that if it does end that it’s not messy. Honestly I think these two deserve each other and don’t wish them on other people if they were to separate.
I listened to Monica and Jess love boys, and all I could think about is how she seems like she’s waiting for Dax and Kristen to break up so she and Dax can be together. It’s not like a familial relationship.
I feel like Kristen must be okay with Dax sh** talking her on TV. He’s done it multiple times. It’s not cute. It seems so jealous and condescending towards her.
Really? I don’t listen to that podcast other than the Harry one and the one with Josh Dumel. I can’t take Dax’s voice as I think he’s trying to imitate Howard Stern and he tries way to hard to be irreverent and witty. I can’t do it.
I can’t stand that they have this massive resentment toward each other, fight all the time, don’t speak for DAYS at a time, and normalize it as “healthy couples fight and go to therapy!” Sure, it’s normal to disagree sometimes and some couples benefit from therapy, but how they behave with one another is not normal or healthy at all.
Truly cannot abide either of these characters. Not his podcasting partner. Dax and Kbell. They seem so obnoxious. So cutesy. All their problems seem very white and yuppie. I kind of don’t like that I am even saying that cuz it’s quite the vague statement and has no real basis other than a vague impression but… idk. They are big fans of Ellen Degeneres. I do think that speaks for itself lol
It’s obvious Bell has started feeding stories to Deux Moi. Last week, they had a “scoop” about her favorite residential utility company. Like that didn’t come directly from the PR team of the utility team she’s shilling for. These people are true attention vampires. And absolutely exhausting.
Those steroids have aged him FAST. He looks middle-aged overnight.
He’s fallen in the trap of skipping leg day. Dax you need balance or they’re just vanity muscles.
Can’t wait to hear Dax complaining about Monica’s eventual success and taking credit for it. Poor Dax, having a successful wife who is sensitive enough not to brag to him about a little Jeopardy nod. She should probably just shrink herself down and not be so famous so he feels better.
Monica isn’t going to “happen” so no worries there.
The competitive husband is a big red flag! I don’t think this will last. I look at Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, they’re publicly kind and supportive. I’m sure they’ve had fights and not spoken for days but that’s not what he says about her on Kimmel. Ps. A 3-way marriage joke….yes that’s always a good sign too
Well I can’t say I know these people other than I’ve seen few TV shows they happened to be on and personally both are cringe but I doubt they’re breaking up any time soon. I thought it was hilarious when he said he always wanted to be in a Marvel movie and be Elasticman jimmy was like ..umm that’s DC.
YIKES. I could never be with someone that was constantly keeping score…
Good point. It’s super suss that he has all these examples of her getting more attention ready to go at the front of his mind.
I totally get the vibe that Monica is just waiting for role to supersede Kristen’s as Dax’s #1 woman. Like, I can absolutely imagine her sharing eye-rolls when K’s back is turned, or stealthy texts to each other when they’re all in the room together, making snarky comments about K right in front of her still their own little secret.
She’s definitely primed to step in as his main person who totally doesn’t take any attention away from him. Heck, she’s made boosting him up her whole career, how can he resist??
Oohh good points there may be something there
Do they actually hate each other but cannot divorce their brand, or is that their brand? Cannot stand him, she is almost there too
I feel like I can visualize the probably-Buzzfeed headline that irked him (“Kristen Bell Just Posted the Sweetest Thing to Dax Shepard on Instagram” or something), and it would bug me, too. Personally I found this perfectly funny and relatable, but then, maybe my marriage has a similar dynamic that I haven’t noticed. (I didn’t watch the Kimmel clip beyond that, since I’m not really a podcast person.)
Yikes.