Dax Shepard says he made a move on Kate Hudson while she was still married, a confession he shared on a recent episode of his podcast “Armchair Expert.”
The 51-year-old actor was discussing his friendship with guests Erin and Sara Foster, explaining that the bond formed during the period he was dating Hudson. His co-host, Monica Padman, noted that Shepard had been “obsessed” with Hudson long before the two became a couple.
Shepard said the attraction began at a poker night hosted by a mutual friend named Oliver, while Hudson was still married to Chris Robinson.
“What happened was I was friends with Oliver. I f—ing adore Oliver. I was at his house one night playing poker and she came and played and she was still with Chris,” Shepard said. “I just thought she was so f—ing beautiful and I was like ‘Oh my god I can’t believe she’s here.'”
Shepard admitted he knew Hudson was married but pursued her anyway, saying he “gave her everything I had in the reserve tank” that night. He recalled leaving with the thought, “Well, that’s as good of a job as one can do. She’s married. Who cares?” telling himself he’d had “a great first showing.”
After Hudson’s separation from Robinson, the two crossed paths again at a dinner hosted by their mutual friend Steve Brill, and Shepard decided to try again.
“Now she’s single and I’m like, ‘Let’s see if we can f—ing muster up this magic and get it going again,'” he said. “And then I got it going again. And then from that night on we were just together every single day.”
The pair dated for a few months in 2007 and stayed friendly after splitting up. During a November 2019 appearance on “Armchair Expert,” Hudson and Shepard revealed that their public debut as a couple actually started as a joke on paparazzi outside Nobu, where they walked out holding hands to feign annoyance at being photographed.
“I was acting mad at the paparazzi that they were invading our privacy,” Shepard said. “And then it just somehow led to hanging out!”
“Then I wanted to have sex with him,” Hudson added. “It was like the perfect move.”
After he and Hudson parted ways, Shepard began dating actress Kristen Bell, whom he married in 2013. The couple have two daughters, Lincoln, 13, and Delta, 11.
Hudson later was engaged to Muse frontman Matthew Bellamy from 2011 to 2014; the two have a son, Bingham, 15, who joined her older son Ryder, 22, from her relationship with Robinson. Hudson is now engaged to Danny Fujikawa, whom she started dating in 2016. They share a daughter, Rani, 8.
