Ashton Kutcher reveals he thought about killing himself so that his twin brother may have his heart.
The 44-year-old actor Kutcher is most known for his work on TV series including That ’70s Show, Two and a Half Men, and Punk’d.
The actor has previously been upfront about his personal health issues, having struggled with a rare vasculitis illness that impairs walking, hearing, and vision.
But on the most recent episode of the Paramount+ programme ‘The Checkup With Dr. David Agus’, Kutcher has now acknowledged that he once thought about killing himself.
Along with his twin brother Michael, who has cerebral palsy, a condition that can impair speech and movement, the What Happens in Vegas star appeared on the programme.
Opening up on the show, Michael said (via Entertainment Tonight): “My parents had the whole philosophy that Mike’s going to be able to do anything that his brother can do and they challenged me.
“Growing up, [Ashton] challenged me as well.”
When Kutcher’s twin began exhibiting flu-like symptoms in the eighth grade, his family quickly discovered that he had an enlarged heart and only had three to four weeks to live without a transplant.
Then Kutcher remembered how his father had once taken him to visit his dying sibling because they were unsure of his remaining time.
He said: “I was at my friend’s house, suddenly my dad picks me up and is like, ‘You’re going to go see your brother’.
“In hindsight you realise, they want me to see him because they don’t know where this is going.
“I go in the room and I’m like, ‘Whoa! Everything’s not OK’. He flatlines in the room… They’re grabbing me and they take me out.”
Kutcher claims that he began formulating answers in his thoughts as soon as he realised how seriously ill his brother was.
He remembered: “I’m thinking to myself, ‘If anyone’s a match, I’m a match’.
“Now you start running that cycle through your head. You’re like, ‘This balcony looks far enough to take things’.”
Kutcher experienced a “moment of realization” after learning the seriousness of his brother’s condition, according to Dr. Agus, who spoke to Entertainment Tonight.
The expert explained: “Ashton went to his parents and said, ‘Take my heart’. He said it truthfully. He really wanted to give it to his brother.
“The person he loved most in the world, his brother, [was] going through this and he wasn’t able to… just push [Michael] along.
“He had helped his brother with cerebral palsy and some social issues at school, but now here’s an issue that he can’t fix.”
Kutcher’s brother fortunately discovered a match, and 24 hours after he underwent a heart transplant.
Michael, however, found a blood clot two years later and required open heart surgery.
Kutcher added: “I think standing on the balcony going, ‘I’m a match’, that moment is probably the exact moment the shift took place.
“Where I’m like, ‘How do I get to be this lucky? And my brother to be born with cerebral palsy, then have a heart transplant, then have this random blood clot… Who has to go through that? How do I get to be this lucky?’.”
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