For most, Ashton Kutcher is a man we’ve grown up with. From his hilarious antics on That 70’s Show, Kutcher continued to charm audiences worldwide with his buoyant charisma and quick wit, starring in some of pop culture’s biggest films like Valentine’s Day and Dude, Where’s My Car? And of course, there was Punk’d, the show that gave us all a catchphrase we’d never forget, along with creative imaginings of how to pull-off the ultimate prank.
But while it used to be the case that you’d be hard-pressed to frequent a movie cinema and not see something Kutcher was starring in, in recent years Kutcher has retained a sense of privacy, enjoying family life as a father of two to kids he shares with wife, Mila Kunis, and flexing his skills in other ventures, namely those of the investment world. Speaking to Esquire for a new digital cover story, Kutcher expressed that when it comes to choosing companies to invest in, his slogan is “Invest in enduring happiness,” something that also extends to his work.
“I want to tell stories that say something. I want to tell stories that deliver people joy. And I want to deliver stories that make people think. And I want to play characters that are fun to play. And I’m willing to work my ass off to do that,” he adds.
But while the 44-year-old seems to ooze confidence and an infectious enthusiasm for life, his own hasn’t been without struggles. Opening up about his relationship with Demi Moore, which ended in 2011 after eight years together, six of which saw them married, Kutcher spoke about the difficulty of navigating life after divorce. “Nothing makes you feel like a failure like divorce,” said Kutcher. “Divorce feels like a wholesale fucking failure. You failed at marriage.”
The pair went public with their relationship in 2003 and immediately saw themselves the subject of intense media scrutiny and tabloid fodder. As Kutcher expressed, after going public with Moore, he ceased to have any semblance of privacy. “The moment that information broke, my life changed,” he admits, yet he’s quick to accept responsibility for it too. “It’s stupid to complain about things that you’re contributing to.”
Though much was talked about in terms of their age gap, Kutcher came into that relationship to find himself a step-father to three daughters. Though he was just 26-years-old at the time of their marriage, he recalls “bearing the responsibility of an 8-year-old, a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old,” in reference to Moore’s daughters, Rumer, Scout and Tallulah Willis.
“That’s how some teen parents must experience their twenties,” he says.
Prior to the divorce, Moore and Kutcher experienced a devastating miscarriage. Moore suffered a late-term pregnancy loss at six months, later going on to try and conceive a child together through other means like in vitro fertilisation. “Losing a kid that you think you’re going to have, and that close to thinking you’re going to have a kid, is really, really painful,” Kutcher expressed. “Everyone deals with that in different ways.”
Kutcher added: “I love kids. I wouldn’t have gotten married to a woman that had three kids if I didn’t love kids. The idea of having another kid would have been incredible.” But as he says, “For whatever reason, I had to have that experience.”
Now, Kutcher is married to Mila Kunis, with the pair first meeting on the set of That 70’s Show. “The thing about Mila that made our relationship accelerate was that I had always admired her. Her talents, her skills, her gifts. But I knew that she didn’t need me. And she knew that I didn’t need her,” he says.
Kutcher will now make his screen return in the Netflix rom-com, Your Place or Mine, which hits the streaming platform on February 10 and sees him star opposite Reese Witherspoon.
