by Ashton Kutcher first rose to fame after starring as Michael Kelso in the popular sitcom of the late 90s. That 70’s Show.
From there, Ashton quickly became a household name thanks to the hit MTV show. rascal lead roles in movies such as Dude, Where’s My Car? and Butterfly Effect.
In fact, it’s fair to say that Ashton is one of the highlights of the early zeros and his loving marriage to his ex. That 70’s Show Since 2015, lead actress Mila Kunis has gained even more public attention later in her career.
Despite this, both Ashton and Mila have always made sure to keep a large part of their lives incredibly private, and it’s very rare that we get any insight into what’s going on behind the glitz and glamor of Hollywood personalities.
But Ashton made the unconventional decision to put arguably his most personal relationship under the microscope in a new TV appearance.
on Paramount+s Control with David AgusAshton and his twin brother Michael talked about their different lives in a candid and incredibly honest conversation.
Michael was diagnosed with cerebral palsy (a lifelong disorder that affects movement and coordination) as a child, and in the series, Ashton remembers the extreme measures he was willing to go for for his brother’s sake.
And at the other end of the spectrum, the twins also reveal the tensions faced by their fraternity due to Michael’s health issues and Ashton’s success.
On the show, Michael says he and Ashton’s mother Diane first realized that she was different from her brother when they were three years old, and realized “a bit of slowness, lacking some motor skill functionality, slurring some of my speech.”
But even after being diagnosed, the twins were treated exactly the same, in the belief that Michael could do whatever Ashton could do.
“They challenged me,” Michael explains, also revealing that Ashton will defend him when targeted by bullies due to his vision loss, hearing loss, and speech impediment.
Ashton remembers how they played, shared clothes, and wrestled together growing up, but in his early teens, things turned upside down when the family was told that Michael was in dire need of a heart transplant.
The twins were in eighth grade when Michael was hospitalized and given only three to four weeks to live.
Reliving the difficult moment on the show, Ashton tries to hold back tears as she talks about the moment Michael was pulled out of his hospital room after he collapsed to the floor.
It was at this point that Ashton decided to sacrifice himself to save his twin’s life.
“I think to myself: ‘If someone’s fit, I’m fit too’,” Ashton shares. “Now start going through that loop in your head. You say, ‘This balcony seems far enough away to get something.'”
Ashton continues, “The moment I stand on the balcony and say, ‘I’m available,’ is probably just the moment the shift happens,” Ashton continues. “How could I be so lucky?” ? And my brother will be born with cerebral palsy, then he will have a heart transplant…’”
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Dr. Agus said of this moment in Ashton and Michael’s lives: “Ashton went up to his family and said, ‘Take my heart.’ He said it honestly. He really wanted to give it to his brother.”
Fortunately, Michael managed to find a match and received a heart transplant after his family was told he only had 24 hours to live.
And despite Ashton’s great display of affection for his older brother at the height of his health problems, the incredibly different lives they led became a source of contention as they grew older.
Michael struggled with Ashton’s appearance of pity for him, and things got worse when Ashton found fame and became a self-confessed “scumbag”.
Ashton says of her early days of fame: “It’s easy to believe the good things people say about you and start embracing that about who you are as a person. Frankly, I was just a jerk for a while.
At the same time, Michael admits that he was jealous of his brother’s success and their relationship became strained.
Things came to a head when Michael visited Ashton in New York and confronted him about how he treated him, especially how Ashton made him feel like a smaller person.
“Mike came to visit and looked at me and said, ‘Every time you feel sorry for me, you make me feel less.’ It’s the only life I’ve ever known, so stop feeling sorry for the only thing I have,” Ashton recalls. It created a complete return to where I thought we were, that we were being honest. It’s equal again. That’s it.”
This was a turning point in the twins’ relationship, and Michael said: “Somehow when we got together, we talked about it and I realized that he’s still my brother. The world may see him differently, but I know him.”
“He’s still my brother and he hasn’t changed and never will be,” she adds. “When I took all the fame and everything from him, I was able to go back to him.”
But when Ashton publicly voiced Michael’s health problems on a television show in 2003, night line Things got tense once again.
“I didn’t know I was dating him because I didn’t know it was a secret,” Ashton explains.
And while Michael didn’t “appreciate” Ashton for what he was doing at the time, he used the opportunity to express himself and become a “lawyer.”
“For most of my early adulthood I really struggled, trying to understand who Michael was. When he gave me the opportunity to really express that side of me, I thought, ‘If we’re there, I can do something good with that.’ I can be a lawyer too,” says Michael.
Meanwhile, the ups and downs she and Michael have faced over the years have given Ashton an “appreciation for life.”
Needless to say, the brutally honest talk Ashton and Michael gave on the show was widely praised by the audience, with one person commenting on a clip of the interview: “The introspection these two gentlemen have in their own feelings is incredible.”
“The place where they can find healing is in that honest and painful communication,” said another. The third wrote: “Thanks to both of them for being open and honest.”
Another person added: “Wow, that’s too heavy, you two are too strong for each other now and it’s so good!!!”
