Fourteen years later, the actor is still emotional recalling the moment his then-fiancée went above and beyond.

Dax Shepard breaks down in tears detailing Kristen Bell’s surprise for his dying dad

Fourteen years later, the actor is still emotional recalling the moment his then-fiancée went above and beyond.

By Kathleen Perricone

April 9, 2026 4:50 p.m. ET

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Dax Shepard gets emotional talking to Anderson Cooper. Credit:

Dax Shepard opened up about grief in a new conversation with Anderson Cooper, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house as he shared Kristen Bell’s touching gesture during his father’s final days.

In 2012, the actor was at the peak of his career as a regular on NBC’s *Parenthood*, with a child of his own on the way, when his father, Dave Shepard, was diagnosed with small-cell carcinoma.

Every weekend for months, Dax traveled home to Detroit to care for his dad and bring him to medical appointments, while his heavily pregnant fiancée stayed behind in Los Angeles.

As the aggressive cancer took over, “an unending parade” of well-wishers showed up at Dave’s hospital room to say their final goodbyes. And while their intentions were pure, it was bittersweet for his son.

“I was starting to resent that I couldn’t just be in there with my dad, and I was starting to get quite overwhelmed with that,” Shepard told Cooper. “I went outside to sit in the car to get a breather, and I called Kristen to vent about it.”

Fourteen years later, the emotion was still raw as he got choked up recounting the story to Cooper and the live audience gathered at the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University.

“I was complaining, and she said, ‘It’s okay, I’m here. Look to the left’… and she’s standing there seven-months pregnant,” he recalled.

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Shepard continued about “intuitive” Bell, “She knew I was struggling and she had flown [from L.A.] and not told me and figured out where this hospital was and was standing next to the car. Yeah. What a champ, you know.”

Alone with Dave in his hospital room, the couple got a quiet moment to allow him to say “hello” and, ultimately, goodbye to the grandchild growing inside Bell. “He got to feel her belly,” said Shepard as a photo of the memory was shown on a screen to the audience. “Look how cute she looks with that belly,” he gushed.

Cooper, who also spoke of grieving the losses of his father, brother, and mother (fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt), then read aloud a 2013 blog post Shepard wrote detailing the sweet moment.

“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 contently, 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.”

Cooper himself got choked up as he continued reading, “It was an emotional and triumphant moment. One I will never forget. If I live to be a thousand, I will still be in debt to my wife for giving him that one last thrill.”

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard in 2026.

Stefanie Keenan/Getty

Dave Shepard passed away in late December 2012; three months later, Shepard and Bell welcomed their first daughter, Lincoln, in March 2013.

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The couple got married in October of that year, and they became a family of four with the birth of second daughter Delta in December 2014.

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