Dax Shepard's Chilling Death Confession — Actor Recalls 'Comforting' Feeling as He Thought He Was Seconds Away From Dying
Feb. 9 2026, Published 3:00 p.m. ET
Dax Shepard has revealed he had a chilling near-death experience after being involved in a serious car crash when he was a senior in high school, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The podcaster revealed how the feeling he was going to "die any second" ended up being "shockingly comforting," and left him wondering for days afterward if he was actually dead.
'I'm About to Die'
Shepard called his near-death experience one of the 'most unique feelings' he ever had.
The conversation about near-death experiences kicked off during Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast on Monday, February 9, when guest Kaley Cuoco said she hadn't had one but "wished" she did, "Because I wanna see what these people are... what are they seeing?"
Shepard then launched into what he experienced during the horrific car accident when he was in 12th grade.
"I don't know what the definition is. But, I have had the moment, which is among the most unique feelings I've ever had in my life, where I went, 'Oh, I'm about to die. I'm like seconds away from dying,'" he explained.
"I was in the back seat of a car. Like I had folded the seats down in the back of a Ford Probe, in like a hatchback, and my friend was driving. We were coming back from Toledo, back up to Detroit," he recalled. "It was late at night, and I had to work super early in the morning. So I go, 'Hey, I'm gonna sleep in the back. Are you good to drive?' [He said] 'Yeah, I'm totally fine.'"
'Airborne' Major Car Crash Going 85 MPH
Kaley Cuoco listened intently as Shepard talked about his near-death experience.
"He had the cruise control on 85, and I'm like back there, I'm listening, and the road was really rhythmic," the comedian shared.
Thinking how the "rhythm is nice. I'm going to fall asleep," Shepard continued, "And then I just heard gravel hitting the side of the car. And I immediately looked up, and he was completely slumped over, and we had gone off the road, and we're going 85, and the car started to go sideways an it's just pine trees lining uh the that interstate in Michigan.
"I started to go over the wheel and there to grab the wheel, and there was a moment where was I just knew it was too far gone. Like we had gone completely sideways. I laid back down and then we began, we just launched in the air and we started rolling right down the highway."
"And as this was happening, I'm waiting to just hit a tree. I'm like, we're going to hit a tree and that's going to be that. And I definitely had this moment where I was like, 'Oh wow, I'm going to die in a second,'" Shepard remembered.
Going From 'Complete Fear' to 'Totally at Peace'
Shepard survived the car crash where the vehicle rolled '10 times.'
"And the feeling was shockingly comforting like that. I remember I went from like complete fear, s--- the car is out of control. Oh my god, we're going to roll. F--- we're rolling. Oh, right. We're going to roll into a tree. I'm going to die. Like all that calculus. And then I just went like... and I got very calm," Shepard recalled about the harrowing crash.
He noted that whatever the 'weird chemical' in the brain is "did definitely start getting released. I think where I was at kind of weirdly at total peace with it."
Miraculously, Shepard walked away from the accident.
"We just rolled like 10 times, ended up upside down. We did not hit a tree. We crawled out the windows. My friend was okay. He was okay, and I was okay," the Idiocracy star revealed.
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Lasting Trauma
The podcast host said the experience left him unable to fall sleep in a car ever again.
Shepard said he'd like to talk to other folks who had near-death experiences, because for him, the "trippiest part" was "post that event for about three days because I already went, "Oh, I'm dead." And I accepted it."
"For the next three days, I just be places, and I felt very peculiar like 'Am I dead? Like I was, I know I died. Am I dead?' Like that, that was the weirdest part of the whole thing."
The experience scarred him from ever being able to sleep in a car again with someone else behind the wheel.
"This may shock you, but I've never been able to fall asleep in a car ever since," he said about the lasting impact of the crash. "There's no way I could sleep with someone else driving. That's a wrap on that."
