Dax Shepard broke down in tears as he recalled his Kristen Bell’s moving surprise for his dying dad – revealing the actress secretly flew from California to Detroit to visit the hospital while she was seven months pregnant.
Dax Shepard broke down in tears as he recalled Kristen Bell’s moving surprise for his dying dad.
The 51-year-old actor/comedian opened up about the final days he spent with his dad Dave before he passed away in 2012 after a battle with cancer and he’s revealed his pregnant wife made a surprise trip to the hospital because she knew her partner was struggling and she wanted Dave to meet their inborn child.
During an appearance on the All There Is with Anderson Cooper podcast, Dax explained he felt “overwhelmed” as visitors flocked to his dad’s hospital room as he neared the end of his life and Kristen laid on an emotional surprise, saying: “She’s done so many incredible things over the 19 years we’ve been together but she’s intuitive like crazy.
“So I was there [in Detroit] and I was growing really, really upset with the amount of people visiting my dad and they were all really well-intentioned …
“His room was an unending parade of many, many people and they were all lovely and well-intentioned but it put me in the position of them grieving and me having to comfort them and I was starting to resent that I couldn’t just be in there with my dad. And I was really starting to get quite overwhelmed with that and I went outside to sit in the car to get a breather and I called Kristin to just vent about it … I mean this is unbelievable this story.”
He went on to add: “I was complaining and she said: ‘It’s okay. I’m here. Look to the left.’
“Mind you, we live in California and I’m in Detroit. And I look to my left and she’s standing there, seven months pregnant. She knew I was struggling and she had flown and not told me and figured out where this hospital was and was standing next to the car. What a champ, you know?
“So then we went and visited my dad … She came in and he got to feel her belly.”
During the podcast, which was recorded at the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University, Anderson then went on to read a passage written by Dax after the moment at the hospital with his wife and his father: “She lifted her shirt up and he put his hand on her swollen stomach, he left it there for the better part of an hour.
“He was smiling from ear-to-ear sitting contentedly unable to put together a sentence but still capable of connecting to the new family member we were creating.
“He wasn’t going to make it to the birth but that didn’t get in the way of him meeting the new baby. It was an emotional and triumphant moment and one I will never forget …”
Dax Shepard cries as he recalls Kristen Bell’s moving surprise for his dying dad
