Ashton Kutcher and twin Michael talk health, guilt and rift between them
Ashton Kutcher discusses the future of 5G at a media event on July 14, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
In a rare interview, twin brothers Ashton and Michael Kutcher talked about both their bond and their rift.
The pair appeared on the new Paramount+ series "The Checkup with Dr. David Agus."
Agus, who is Ashton Kutcher's doctor, first spoke with the actor about his battle with the autoimmune condition vasculitis.
Later he sat down with the brothers to talk about Michael Kutcher having cerebral palsy and also the moment he almost died as a youngster after contracting viral myocarditis that caused his heart to become enlarged and fail.
The brothers both got emotional about Michael's heart stopping while Ashton was visiting him in the intensive care unit.
"I go in the room and I'm like 'Whoa,'" Ashton Kutcher said, fighting back tears. "I'm like...'Everything is not ok.' And he flatlines in the room and I know that noise cause now I've been visiting occasionally."
He said he considered jumping off a balcony to help his brother since his heart would be a match. Michael Kutcher did receive a donor heart in 24 hours.
He later had to have open heart surgery after a blood clot was discovered. Meanwhile, Ashton Kutcher's career as a model and actor started taking off and he said he felt guilt.
The "That 70s Show" star said he wondered, "How do I get to be this lucky?"
"For my brother...to be born with cerebral palsy, then have a heart transplant, then have this random blood clot, these things that you're just like, 'Who has to go through that?,'" he said.
Michael Kutcher eventually called him out, he said.
"He looked at me and he said, 'Every time you feel sorry for me, you make me less,'" Ashton Kutcher said. "He said 'This is the only life I've ever known, so stop feeling sorry for the only thing I have.' And that then created an entire shift back to where I think we are today, which is straight up equals again."
Michael Kutcher told Agus the brothers drifted apart because of jealousy on his part after his brother became "a household name."
"There was a moment when I viewed him as receiving more attention than I was," Michael Kutcher said. "That kind of drove me down to a place where I was jealous."
The brothers talked it through, Michael Kutcher said, adding, "And once I took all of the fame and everything out of it, I was able to just, you know, come back to him."
They also had an issue after the actor shared publicly that his brother had cerebral palsy, something Michael Kutcher had not shared. Ashton Kutcher said during the interview that he was not aware that his brother had been keeping it a secret.
Michael Kutcher is now an advocate for the disabled.
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