‘Insane thoughts’: Dax Shepard opens up about sexual abuse past

We know Daz Shepard as the archetypal funnyman, but it seems the much-loved star has done his best to conceal an incredibly dark period in his past.

Opening up during a radio interview on The Jason Ellie Show, the former Punkd star revealed that he had been molested by an 18-year-old neighbour at the age of seven.

"It was minimal," Shepard told the SiriusXM host. "It wasn't anything like what you recounted. But even at that, it took me 12 years to tell anyone that."

Unsurprisingly, the traumatic event took its toll on the popular actor, who continued: "It took me 12 years to tell anyone 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'."

The star, who has struggled with addiction issues in the past, attributes the abuse to struggles in adult life, saying:" If you've been molested, you only have a 20% chance of not being an addict."

"I was like, 'Hmm, interesting', because in my mind I just like to have a f**king great time," he admitted. "But when you hear a statistic like that, I'm like, 'Oh no, I was going to be an addict, period.'"

The actor, who is perhaps best known for his role in Parenthood, is now the proud dad of two young daughters with actress Kristin Bell.