CNN
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In a rare interview, twin brothers Ashton and Michael Kutcher talk about both their bond and their rift.
The pair appeared in the new Paramount+ series “Checkup with Dr. David Agus.”
Ashton Kutcher’s doctor Agus spoke first about his battle with the actor autoimmune condition vasculitis,
He later sat down with the brothers to talk about Michael Kutcher having cerebral palsy and how he nearly died as a young man after contracting viral myocarditis, which caused his heart to enlarge and fail.
When Ashton visits Michael in the intensive care unit, the brothers become emotional over Michael’s heart failure.
“I walk into the room and I’m like ‘Wow,'” Ashton Kutcher said, fighting back tears. “I’m like… ‘Everything is not okay.’ And it lays flat in the room and I know that’s the cause of the noise now I only go occasionally.
She said she considered jumping off the balcony to help her brother because her heart would match. Michael Kutcher received a donor heart in 24 hours.
He later had to undergo open heart surgery after a blood clot was found. Meanwhile, Ashton Kutcher’s career as a model and actor began to take off and he said he felt guilty.
The “That ’70s Show” star said he wondered, “How did I get this lucky?”
“For my brother … to be born with cerebral palsy, then have a heart transplant, then have this random blood clot, these things you’re like, ‘Who has to go through that?,'” he said.
Michael Kutcher eventually called him out, he said.
“She looked at me and she said, ‘Every time you feel sorry for me, you diminish me,'” 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 then I think it’s a full inning back to where we are today, which is straight par again.
Michael Kutcher told Agus that jealousy on his part after his brother became a “household name” caused the brothers to split.
Michael Kutcher said, “There was a moment when I noticed that he was getting more attention than me.” “That kind of led me to a place where I was jealous.”
The brothers talked about it, with Michael Kutcher saying, “And once I took all the fame and everything away, I was just able to, you know, come back to it.”
They had an issue even after the actor publicly shared that his brother had cerebral palsy, which was not shared by Michael Kutcher. Ashton Kutcher said during the interview that he was not aware that his brothers were keeping it a secret.
Michael Kutcher is now an advocate for the disabled.