Dax Shepard Opens Up About Being Molested at 7 Years Old

Actor and funny-man Dax Shepard revealed something very serious while taping an episode of SiriusXM’s The Jason Ellis Show: He was molested as a child.

Shepard--who is married to actress Kristen Bell --said the incident happened when he was 7 years old. His abuser was 18 years old. That's an 11-year age difference.

"It was minimal," Shepard said. "...But even at that, it took me 12 years to tell anyone that. And then all that time, I was like...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."

When the host asked Shepard if he knew what was happening at the time, he admitted, “Oh God yeah.”

So, how did this even come up during their chat? According to PerezHilton.com, Shepard and Ellis were discussing Shepard's addiction issues. That's when Shepard said the molestation may have played a role in his substance abuse battle.

The Hit and Run star said his mother, a foster care advocate, called him and revealed a shocking statistic about addiction and molestation. “She called me not to long ago and she said, ‘You know, I was just at a seminar this weekend and I learned that if you’ve been molested, you only have a 20 percent chance of not being an addict,” he said. “And I was like, ‘Hmm, interesting,’ because in my mind I just like to f--king have a great time. But when you hear a statistic like that, I’m like, ‘Oh no, I was going to be an addict, period.’”

We admire Shepard for being so open about all of this. Listen to an excerpt of the interview above.