Kristen Bell's celebration of her and Dax Shepard's wedding anniversary perhaps didn't go over as expected.

"The Good Place" actress on Oct. 17 shared a photo of the two embracing on the edge of a bed and captioned the Instagram post: "Happy 12th wedding anniversary to the man who once said to me: 'I would never kill you. A lot of men have killed their wives at a certain point. Even though I’m heavily incentivized to kill you, I never would.'"

Though comments on the 45-year-old's Instagram posts have since been limited, several users took to the comments to either join in on the joke or denounce a statement that could be seen as making light of domestic violence.

Howie Mandel quipped, "He should write for Hallmark," while Shepard's "Parenthood" costar Mae Whitman wrote, "Only because we'd never let him get away with it ." Zoey Deutch showed her support by commenting, "you guys are the best."

Mary Steenburgen laughed along with Shepard's brand of humor; she wrote, "Oh man. We are laughing so hard!!!!." Terry Crews chimed in, "This is LOVE." And Seth Green joked, "No wonder you feel seen."

However, critical responses ranged from "yikes" to one person telling Bell, "This is tone deaf and offensive during any month." October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

According to the UN's report "Femicides in 2023: Global Estimates of Intimate Partner/Family Member Femicides," "140 women and girls die every day at the hands of their partner or a close relative, which means one woman or girl is killed every 10 minutes."

USA TODAY has reached out to Bell's representative for comment.

The divisive post comes days before the highly anticipated second season of her hit Netflix show, "Nobody Wants This," is slated to drop on the streamer. The day before the couple's 12th anniversary, Bell admitted that she'd forgotten the occasion.

"Oh my God, it's my anniversary! You know I don't remember that," she told Entertainment Tonight at the "Nobody Wants This" Season 2 premiere on Oct. 16. "It helps that he doesn't remember either. No one's at fault here, right? We're just not great with dates."

Shephard and Bell, who married in 2013, share daughters Lincoln, 12, and Delta, 10.

If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or text "START" to 88788.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kristen Bell shares divisive anniversary post for Dax Shepard: 'I would never kill you'

Reporting by KiMi Robinson, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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