Dax Shepard has broken his silence after Cher made a series of comments about his marriage to Kristen Bell while appearing on the Armchair Expert podcast.
On the January 5 episode, Cher seemingly took aim at Shepard, as she argued his partner of 20 years, Bell, was far too good for him.
"You're lucky, she's definitely the better half," she said about Bell - who shares two kids with Shepard after tying the knot 12 years ago.
Initially, Shepard let the first comment slip by unchecked, but later in the episode he circled back to it and stated how Cher is 'just not sold yet on me'.
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That's when the 'Believe' songstress appeared to take another swipe: "No, but the truth is I trust her [Bell]. So, you must have something that I don't see."
Rather than confronting Cher directly at the time, Shepard simply asked: "Who would you like to see Kristen with? If you got to pick from every available bachelor - oh, they don't even have to be available, they can be some taken ones if you want. Who would be your dream partner for her? Because I know you think she could do better, and I don't disagree. Who would be your pick?"
When Cher replied that she didn't know, the Idiocracy actor added: "Brad Pitt, maybe?"
Now, almost a week after the episode aired, Shepard has addressed the podcast’s interview for himself.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight at the Golden Globes on Sunday (January 11), Shepard said he thought the comments were ‘hilarious’ and in case anyone was wondering, he wasn’t offended in the slightest.
"It was so good. We kept it in because it was great," he said before joking that Bell served him ‘divorce papers’ after hearing the episode.
Shepard then made reference to the backlash that had ensued from Cher's comments, as he added that things can often be misinterpreted online, saying: "The internet is a dangerous place."
Yet while Cher’s comments may not have phased the podcast host, he did admit in the January 12 episode of Armchair Expert that remarks from others had hurt him in the past.
Shepard said: "I’ve been with Kristen for 20 years, and there have been hundreds of articles about, ‘Why is she with this guy?’ Lists of top 10 hot girls with ugly guys.
"I’ve been dealing with that less now since the podcast, but for the first 12, 13 years we were together, there were hundreds of these lists of ugly guys with hot girls, and I’m always on it."
Explaining how it had left him ‘hurt and insecure’, he also went on to reveal that it had led to some ‘defensive’ traits in response.
"I’m like ‘Go meet my other girlfriends. They’ve all been hot. F*** you,’ right? I have this defensiveness," Shepard continued. "And then when I calm down, I really get into it. I’m like, you know, it’s so interesting. I think I know what’s going on. And it’s just [beaten] into us in elementary school and in school, which is like, there’s strata. You’re born into them. Someone shan’t migrate north or south. It’s disruptive to this whole system that we have been formatted in."
Topics: Cher, Kristen Bell, Celebrity, Podcast
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