Dax Shepard responds to theory that he and wife Kristen Bell are ‘swingers’

Dax Shepard has weighed in on the rumours that he and his wife Kristen Bell are swingers.

Speaking during the season five premiere of The Drew Barrymore show, the Armchair Expert podcast host addressed the theory that he and Bell throw regular sex parties in Hollywood.

Shepard shot down the speculation, but said he finds it amusing when his friends text him and tease him about it.

“There was the most exciting tabloid story that we were Hollywood swingers and we hosted swing parties, this was in the tabloids,” Shepard explained.

“My favourite part of that happening was we got a lot of texts from other friends of ours saying, ‘How could you not have invited me to the swinger party?’”

He clarified that their friends were “teasing, of course, because they know us and they know we are not hosting swinger parties”.

Shephard explained that his friend, the TV host Jimmy Kimmel, texted him to joke that he and his wife were upset that they weren’t invited to the sex parties they were apparently hosting.

“I just thought that was great to receive a text from Kimmel saying, ‘My feelings are quite hurt that Molly [McNearney, his wife] and I weren’t invited to this swingers party,’” Shepard added. “[It] was very funny.”

When Barrymore enquired as to whether there was a Hollywood couple that Shephard and his wife fantasise about, he responded: “There’s a lot of hot couples out there, but no, we have not crossed that divide with anyone.”

This isn’t the first time that the pair – who have been married since 2013 – has spoken out against the rumours.

Bell previously explained on a 2023 episode of Armchair Expert that she believes the rumours began because her husband sometimes makes “key-party jokes” when they have guests over.

A “key-party” is a type of swingers event that sees the men put their car keys into a bag, and at the end of the party, the women blindly select a set of keys to determine who she leaves with.

“We’ll have a dinner party or something and, as we’re sitting down, you’ll say, ‘Everybody leave your keys,’” the Good Place actor said to her husband. “Like, you use it as a joke.”

Shepard explained that he has also made references to swinging in his podcast, and suggested that perhaps some listeners do not understand he was joking. At the time, Bell complained that “a lot of people don’t get jokes”.

“That’s actually something I have been thinking about lately, because it’s such a bummer that everything you say has to be taken so literally that there’s no room for fun in expression or language anymore when you’re telling a story, because you better have the facts right,” she said. “It’s just such a lame way to communicate.”

The pair, who share two daughters, met in 2007 at a birthday dinner for a mutual friend. A few weeks later, they attended a Detroit Red Wings ice hockey game together and soon started dating. They got engaged in 2010 and married in 2013, the same year that they welcomed their first child, Lincoln. They had a second child, Delta, the following year.