Dax Shepard tearfully reveals sweet Kristen Bell gesture before his dad's death

Dax Shepard revealed a heartfelt gesture that his wife of over 12 years, Kristen Bell, surprised him with during his father's final moments.

During a conversation with Anderson Cooper at the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University, the "Armchair Expert" podcast host discussed his complicated journey grieving his father, Dave Robert Shepard Sr., who died in 2012 at 62 in after battling an aggressive cancer known as small-cell carcinoma.

The comedian recalled a time he left his home in California to visit his father in a hospital in Detroit and was distraught by the amount of "really well-intentioned" visitors preventing him from having a moment alone with his dad during the end of his life. Cooper noted that many of those people were in Alcoholics Anonymous, also grieving Dave, who struggled with addiction.

"I was starting to resent that I couldn't just be in there with my dad, and I was starting to get quite overwhelmed with that," Shepard told Cooper on March 14. "I went outside to sit in the car to get a breather, and I called Kristen to vent about it."

Bell then surprised him on the phone, saying, "Uh, it's OK. I'm here. Look to the left," Shepard said, noting he appreciates how "intuitive" the "Nobody Wants This" actress is.

"I look to my left and she's standing there, seven months pregnant. She knew I was struggling, and she had flown and not told me and figured out where this hospital was and was standing next to the car," he continued.

Shepard also recalled a memory of the couple visiting his father in his hospital bed and Dave touching Bell's pregnant belly

Dax Shepard says he felt shame after his father's death

Shepard said he felt a sense of relief in the first few months after his father died, as he no longer had to take care of someone.

"Then I felt this real shame of feeling relief that he was dead," he said, during the conversation, which was part of a live taping for the "All There Is with Anderson Cooper" podcast. "I really didn't know how to process what was going on. I knew, intellectually, I should be feeling some sadness or some loss and it just wasn't coming."

In the years since, Shepard said he has developed a stronger relationship with his father after his death, adding that he understands him better, having become a parent himself.

"He adored me the way I adored my little girls. I know that now," he added. "Not only do I look at them in the same way he looked at me but I recognize it. I annoy them in the same way he annoyed me. He just wanted my attention so bad and I found it so annoying and I'm constantly policing myself and I'm like, 'I'm doing exactly what my dad did.'"

In a November episode of Shephard's "Armchair Expert" podcast, he said, "I wish I could have loved my dad as much as he was alive as I do now."

Bell and Shepard, who got married in 2013, share two daughters, including Lincoln Bell Shepard, 13, and Delta Bell Shepard, 11.