Hollywood does not lack examples of feuding siblings. There have been numerous instances when the celebrity sibling has gone rogue on the non-famous one and vice-versa. Over the years, we have seen Madonna and her brother, Christopher Ciccone, stop talking due to the latter’s memoir about the intimate details of his sister’s life. We saw the recent back-and-forth between Britney Spears and Jamie Lynn Spears. But, there was a brief period when Ashton Kutcher and his brother had things heated up.
The ‘No Strings Attached’ actor has two siblings. One is his sister, Tausha, and his twin brother Michael Kutcher. Amongst the three, Ashton is the middle child who achieved name and fame in the industry. The actor rose to fame with his FOX show ‘That 70s Show’. He then became a popular TV personality with his shows on the youth channel MTV. One of the unprecedented moments of fame was when he was cast in ‘Two and a Half Men’. All was well, but an interview severed his relationship with his brother. What was the feud between them?
The Cerebral Palsy Interview Of Ashton Kutcher Angered Michael
When Dianne Kutcher, Ashton’s mother was pregnant with him, she was not aware that she was carrying two lives. A possibility of a twin was not detected even during the sonography sessions. On 7th February 1978, she gave birth to one of the suavest personalities in Hollywood, but after five minutes, they were surprised to see another baby.
The other baby was Michael. While the elder twin was healthy, Michael turned out to be malnourished weighing only 4 pounds. When he was three years old, the doctors confirmed he had cerebral palsy. Despite respiratory and other issues, he survived. However, fate turned its back on him when he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a genetic disorder that prevents the heart from providing blood to the body. There was not an iota of a chance of his survival, but he pushed it through due to a life-altering heart transplant.
The world did not know about the actor’s brother and the condition he was suffering from. But, in 2003, Ashton told the world about his twin brother and that he is suffering from cerebral palsy. This did not sit well with his brother who was infuriated with being even remotely associated with CP. Michael revealed that he was very angry and he spoke about this to Ashton. Expressing his discomfort, he said, “I didn’t want to be the face of CP. I never talked about it”.
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The Actor Was Like A ‘Protector’ For His Brother
On December 6th, 2022, both brothers joined Dr. David Agus in an exclusive chat on Paramount+’s ‘The Checkup With Dr. David Agus’. On the show, Michael told how there were evident differences visible even though they were twins. He said in the interview, “At the age of three, [Diane] could just tell. She was seeing [Ashton] develop at a much greater, advanced pace than myself. Just some slowness, some motor skill functionality was missing, slurring some of my speech. She could really just see that there were differences. I was lagging behind”.
During the interview, he also said that his parents and twin brother, Ashton encouraged and challenged him to do everything that his brother can do. To this, Ashton weighed in, “You kind of only know what’s in front of you. Nobody in our family, nobody in our world was ever pointing out a difference. It just kind of felt like, there’s things that he’s good at and there’s things that I’m good at”.
The family, friends, and relatives did not point out the differences, but when they started going to school the third perspective of the other children was different. The actor said, “When we went to middle school, suddenly there were kids from other schools that hadn’t grown up with us that had a different perspective. That’s when there was an awareness of what was going on”.
But, ‘The Butterfly Effect’ actor protected his brother from bullies and stood up for him. In an interview with TODAY, Michael shared an incident when his brother picked a fight with the bullies. The guys were using the R-word. He said, “My brother picked a fight with them. He stood up for me and wanted them to treat me with respect. And that meant a lot”.
His twin brother used to go to sleepovers and play only if his friends allowed him to bring Michael. He continued, “Most of the time they’d say yes, but sometimes they’d say no and Chris would go, ‘Well, then I’m not coming’. Chris would tell me, ‘I wish I could take all of this off of you — and take it myself'”.
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