Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard have been married for over 10 years, and have always been open about their relationship and raising their kids together. They have been honest about their experiences in couples therapy, struggles during COVID isolation, and Dax Shepard's recovery from substance addiction. They’ve also shared fun stories, like vacations with their two children and hilarious awkward moments. They are one of the most relatable couples in Hollywood, but now they are sparking debate after Kristen Bell revealed she's occasionally let her kid drink non-alcoholic beer.
In a recent interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Bell and the titular talk show host opened up about some awkward moments with their kids in public. Clarkson said that her daughter accidentally drake wine when she was little, and The Good Place got candid about her kids ordering non-alcoholic beer at a restaurant. She of course provided context, saying:
My kids have ordered non-alcoholic beers at restaurants before. Which sounds insane if if you don’t know, because context is important. We've learned that over the last few years. My husband and I when we walked the babies at night in our neighborhood when my daughter was really little. He is a recovering addict, but he likes non-alcoholic beer. So he’d pop on open, he’d have her on his chest and we’d walk and look at the sunset.
This makes a lot of sense in context. While on the surface it may be an odd choice to make for a kid, the background shows that there's a special story at the core. Bell may be okay with non-alcoholic beer at home, she did say she thinks that maybe her kids shouldn’t be ordering it in public. The Forgetting Sarah Marshall actress continued:
So as a baby she was like pawing at it, and sometimes she would suck at the rim of it. So it feels to her like something special, something daddy, something family. There’s no alcohol in it. So we’ve been at restaurants where she said ‘Do you have any non-alcoholic beer?’ And I’m like ‘maybe we don’t, maybe we leave that for home time.’
I’m sure her kids' drink of choice has spurred some plenty of awkward exchanges with waitstaff in public. In true Kristen Bell-fashion, her honesty is always delightful and quirky. She has talked about this before, saying it got really awkward when one of her kids decided to drink one of the virgin beers on a school call. I’m sure the teachers were very confused without the context, but it did result in a hilarious story.
The non-alcoholic beer is certainly a good trade off for real beer, as Shepard has been open about being a recovering alcoholic for many years. The couple has been candid about Shepard relapsing a few years back and how he and Bell have worked through it as a couple. Bell has also been open about navigating this with their kids, and conversations they've had about addiction. Every recovery journey is different, and the couple’s openness about their own relationship with substances helps normalize something a lot of families go through.
Just as every recovery is different, every parenting journey is different. As Bell says, some may judge her for the non-alcoholic beer, but she isn’t doing anything wrong. As long as her kids keep it non-alcoholic, it's a nice memory to share with their dad, and something they’ll probably remember forever.
You can catch Kristen Bell’s latest film, The People We Hate at the Wedding, which is available now with an Amazon Prime subscription. For more information on other great projects available on the streamer, make sure to check out our feature on the best movies on Amazon Prime Video right now.
