The concern that comes with the illness of a loved one can be very draining. Ashton Kutcher relates to this statement in a sit-down interview with Dr David Agus on Paramount+'s The Checkup as he details his struggles in coming to terms with his brother's heart condition and his grand attempt to offer help which involved jumping off a balcony.
Keep reading for the details.
Kutcher admitted to considering jumping off a balcony to donate his heart when he learned of his twin brother Michael's enlarged heart condition. Michael also had cerebral palsy and dealt with some social issues at school, which Kutcher helped him overcome.
"I'm thinking to myself, If anyone's a match, I'm a match. Now you start running that cycle though your head. You're like, this balcony looks far enough to take things."
The star recalled going to their parents and offering his heart as the doctors gave Michael four weeks to live, but he crashed under 48 hours, and his health significantly declined.
Things turned around barely 24 hours after his attempt as Michael got a heart transplant, but something still looked bleak. Two years later, his brother had to undergo another heart surgery due to a new blood clot development, and that whole experience helped Kutcher value his own health the more. He described the epiphany he had on the balcony and said.
"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 and then have this random blood clot, who has to go through that? How do i get to be this lucky?"
The star got candid about his health scare in 2019 when he suddenly lost the ability to walk, hear or see—describing it as vasculitis, a serious and rare autoimmune disease that attacks and inflames the blood vessels.
He described the situation as the push he needed to set an ambitious goal like running a marathon which he achieved in November in the New York City Marathon and raised over $1 million for his Thorn foundation, which protects kids from sexual abuse.
"...I was unable to walk and i was like wait a second, if i can go from not being able to walk to running a marathon in a three year-span, then i can let that be a part of the past and be like, i'm back, i'm good,"
The Two and a Half Men star called his wife, Mila Kunis, the best. Kunis also admitted they've had to power through the complications together in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
"I don't think you have time to sit down and talk, you kinda just power through... and you think that we're so fortunate to have one another."
