Kristen Bell limited who’s allowed to comment on her Instagram Sunday after days-long blowback to a post celebrating her 12-year wedding anniversary to Dax Shepard.
On Friday, the “Nobody Wants This” actress shared a wedding anniversary post to Instagram showing her and Shepard in an embrace. The post started to quickly get more flak online and was accused for being “tone deaf” and insensitive for making light of domestic violence — during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, no less.
“Happy 12th wedding anniversary to the man who once said to me: ‘I would never kill you,’” Bell captioned the image. “‘A lot of men have killed their wives at a certain point. Even though I’m heavily incentivized to kill you, I never would.’”
“Domestic violence isn’t a joke,” one commenter wrote.
“Kristen there’s no way you posted this during Domestic Violence Awareness month,” another pointed out.
“1. Congratulations! 2. I know the caption is supposed to be cute, funny,” another wrote. “But worldwide a women[sic] is killed every ten minutes by their partner…#stopviolenceagainstwomen.”
It was not just regular users and followers that made a point to comment. NBC’s “Dateline” wrote “Screenshotted” underneath the post, which itself caught the attention of a lot of social media users.
Although there were a number of people who called Bell out for the post, others remained supportive to “The Good Place” alum.
“I was in an abusive marriage for TWENTY THREE YEARS and I love this post. If you don’t want to be triggered, get off the Internet,” someone wrote.
“I was in an abusive relationship and I got out,” another said. “This post is meant for her husband not to all of us! Why do people have to take it to the next level??? She is talking to her husband but sharing with us. Not everything has a hidden message!”
Representatives for Bell and Shepard did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Bell’s upcoming season for Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This” drops Thursday. The actress earned an Emmy nomination for her starring role.
