CNN
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In a rare interview, twin brothers Ashton and Michael Kutcher talk about both their bond and their rift.
The duo appeared on the new Paramount+ series “Checkup with Dr. David Eggs.”
Eggs, who is Ashton Kutcher’s doctor, previously spoke with the actor about his battle with the autoimmune condition vasculitis.
He later sat down with the brothers to talk to Michael Kutcher about cerebral palsy and also the moment he nearly died as a young man from viral myocarditis that caused his heart to enlarge and fail.
Both brothers become emotional about Michael’s cardiac arrest when Ashton visits him in the intensive care unit.
“I walk into the room and I’m like ‘Whoa,'” Ashton Kutcher said, fighting back tears. “I’m like…’Not all is well.’ And he’s flatlined in the room and I know I visit now and then because of the noise.
He said he thought about jumping off the balcony to help his brother because his heart would be a match. Michael Kutcher received a donor heart within 24 hours.
He later had to undergo open heart surgery after a blood clot was discovered. Meanwhile, Ashton Kutcher’s career as a model and actor took off and he said he felt guilty.
The “That ’70s Show” star said she wondered, “How could I be so lucky?”
“For my brother… being born with cerebral palsy, then getting a heart transplant, then having this random blood clot, these things that you’re just like, ‘Who has to go through that?,’” she said.
Michael Kutcher eventually asked her out, she said.
“He looked at me and he said, ‘Every time you feel sorry for me, you belittle me,'” Ashton Kutcher said. “He said, ‘This is the only life I’ve ever known, so stop regretting what I have.’ And that then made a complete shift to where I think we are today, which is directly equal again.
Michael Kutcher told Augus that the brothers split up because of his jealousy after his brother became a “household name”.
Michael Kutcher said, “There was a moment when I was paying more attention to him than I was.” “That kind of put me in a place where I was jealous.”
The brothers talked about it, Michael Kutcher said, “and once I got over all the fame and all of that, I was just, you know, able to come back to that.”
They also had an issue after the actor shared publicly that his brother had cerebral palsy, something Michael Kutcher did not share. Ashton Kutcher said during the interview that he was not aware that his brother was keeping it a secret.
Michael Kutcher is now an advocate for the disabled.
