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Dax Shepard has disclosed that he’s been chronicling challenging experiences from his formative years in his forthcoming memoir.
The Armchair Expert podcast host opened up about the sexual abuse he experienced as a child during the Monday, March 2, episode of the show after guest Marcus Mumford spoke about detailing a similar situation in Mumford and Sons’ song “Cannibal.”
“I want to connect with you over this journey,” shared the 51-year-old Shepard, “I’ve been open for years about having been molested, and just admitting that was a major hurdle.” He continued, “I became quite comfortable saying it, which was a significant step.”
“Now, as I’m penning my memoir, the real question has been whether I have the courage to put those details on paper,” Shepard explained.
The Hit & Run actor elaborated, “Those details have always been mine alone. I didn’t want anyone picturing them. It’s strange how that remained a barrier linked to my shame.”
He further noted, “It probably took me four months to share that story. While writing, I can’t help but think about how exposing it feels to have people know this about me.”
The Chips actor — who is married to Kristen Bell and shares daughters Lincoln, 12, and Delta, 11, with the Nobody Wants This star — admitted that he was “pretty emotional” when writing that part of his memoir.
“I was having really weird, kind of, spikes of emotions and moodiness, and I would forget that’s why I was having that,” Shepard recalled. “But I finished it, and something about it existing there feels like a lot of weight is off my shoulders.”
Shepard first opened up about being molested as a child in December 2020, and while he said the abuse was “minimal,” it still had a serious effect on him.
“It took me 12 years to tell anyone,” he said on Sirius XM’s The Jason Ellis Show at the time. “And then all that time, I was like, a) ‘It’s my fault,’ as generic as that is … ‘and I’m gay, I must have manifested this because I’m secretly gay.’ I had all these insane thoughts for 11 years or 12 years.”