Kristen Bell seems to be keeping a low profile after sparking backlash with an Instagram post earlier this week. The Nobody Wants This star was missing from a scheduled appearance on the Today Show Wednesday morning, leaving her costar Justine Lupe to appear on the NBC morning show solo.
Although Lupe made no mention of Bell’s whereabouts during the interview, the Emmy-nominated actress’ absence was telling amid the controversy surrounding Bell’s post celebrating her 12th wedding anniversary to husband Dax Shepard.
Representatives for Bell and the Today show did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s requests for comment.
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On Saturday, Bell shared a photo of Shepard embracing one of their two daughters with a caption reading, “Happy 12th wedding anniversary to the man who once said to me: ‘I would never kill you. A lot of men have killed their wives at a certain point. Even though I’m heavily incentivized to kill you, I never would.'”
The post initially drew congratulations from Bell’s fans. But, as the weekend progressed, social media users began labeling the post “tone deaf” and “insensitive” for making light of violence in a relationship.
Many criticized that Bell’s words seemed to downplay domestic violence, which was particularly offensive during Domestic Violence Awareness month.
“I’ve been a fan for a while. I just wanted to say that please don’t joke about domestic violence,” one user commented. “Please keep in mind that this is something real that lots of people suffer on a daily basis. And the text could be triggering for victims.”
Other comments on the post celebrated the post’s joking caption, noting that it was in line with the couple’s dry sense of humor that often pokes fun at one another.
Bell and Shepard first met at a dinner party in 2007 and began dating later that year. They announced their engagement three years later and, after waiting for same-sex marriage to be legalized in California as a show of solidarity, tied the knot in 2013, seven months after welcoming their first child together, Lincoln. The couple welcomed their second daughter, Delta, in 2014.
The couple aren’t strangers to causing a frenzy — and courting controversy — on social media.
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Last month, Bell drew criticism after recalling leaving her kids to their own devices while vacationing in Denmark. The House of Lies star and Shepard stayed at a hotel in Copenhagen, adjacent to Tivoli Gardens, the historic 181-year-old amusement park that inspired Walt Disney to create Disneyland.
“Don’t you find that going on vacation as a parent — it’s not a vacation, it’s just watching your kids in a different city?” Bell said in a late-night interview with Jimmy Kimmel.
Kimmel felt even stronger, replying, “It’s worse than being at home.”
Bell agreed. “Truly! Because they have none of their creature comforts, they’re asking you a thousand more questions than they normally do.”
The actress explained, “The hotel opens up into the theme park, and so we just were kinda like, ‘Are we gonna [try] like free-range parenting and roll the die here?’ We let them wake up, they woke up at like six every morning, they scanned their bracelets to go outside — didn’t see them for seven hours. Just running around Copenhagen.”
“It was heaven,” she said, proving she has no regrets. “We had coffee, we played spades, and then around three we’d be like, ‘Anybody see them?’ And then they’d run up and need a Band-Aid or whatever.”
The kids ended up just fine. “They’re both alive,” Bell joked. “They all returned home.”
