Ashton Kutcher Lost the Ability to Walk, See and Hear During Illness
Ashton Kutcher, the former "That '70s Show" star turned venture capitalist, shared his feelings about pregnancy loss during a publicity tour for his latest movie.
The Iowa native is in the midst of a media blitz for his upcoming Netflix romantic comedy with Reese Witherspoon, "Your Place or Mine," which hits the streaming platform on Feb. 10.
In addition to discussing his first rom-com in over a decade, Kutcher, 44, candidly talked about the painful experience of pregnancy loss, divorce and life after a debilitating health scare in a conversation with Esquire published on Jan. 31.
Pregnancy loss
In the early 2000s, it seemed there wasn't a grocery store checkout lane without a tabloid with Kutcher and his now ex-wife, Demi Moore, plastered across it.
The actor offered a rare glimpse into the duo's hardest times in his most recent interview with Esquire.
During his six-year marriage to Moore, the couple suffered a late-term pregnancy loss that Kutcher described as "really painful."
About 10 percent to 20 percent of pregnancies in the United States end in miscarriage, according to Mayo Clinic. Most commonly, miscarriages happen before 12 weeks; those that occur between weeks 13 and 20 are considered late miscarriages.
"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 told Esquire. "Everyone deals with that in different ways."
Kutcher and Moore tried fertility treatments unsuccessfully. They later divorced in 2013.
"Nothing makes you feel like a failure like divorce," he told Esquire. "Divorce feels like a wholesale f-----g failure. You failed at marriage."
The actor now has two children with his wife and former "That '70s Show" co-star, Mila Kunis.
Health scare
In the fall of 2022, Kutcher finished the New York City marathon on behalf of the nonprofit group he co-founded with Moore, Thorn, whose mission is to combat online child sexual abuse.
The feat was an accomplishment for the actor on multiple levels.
A few months earlier, Kutcher revealed he had suffered a major health scare just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic on an episode of National Geographic's "Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge." In 2019, Kutcher was diagnosed with vasculitis, a rare autoimmune disorder in which the body's immune system attacks its own blood vessels, causing inflammation and, at its worst, organ damage and death.
In the episode, he told Grylls he felt lucky to be alive.
"You don't really appreciate it until it's gone," he said on the show. "Until you go, 'I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to see again, I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to hear again, I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to walk again.'"
General symptoms of vasculitis can include fatigue, unexpected weight loss, fever and generalized pain, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
After Kutcher woke up for two weeks with increasingly painful migraines, his wife encouraged him to seek medical attention. Kutcher said before long, he couldn't see, hear or walk as he was struggling with his balance. He was hospitalized and bedridden for seven days.
Unable to support the weight of his body with his legs for nearly a month, Kutcher said he physically couldn't do "jack s--t" in spite of his best efforts.
Then he pushed himself to start exercising again.
"I’d just try to do it until I could f-----g do it," he told Esquire.
In the years since his health scare, the star told the magazine he has made the most of his newfound health by visiting Antarctica, climbing mountains in the South Pole, running a marathon and enjoying the day-to-day tasks in Beverly Hills, California, as a loving father of two and a doting husband to Kunis.
Now that the cat is out of the bag about Kutcher's autoimmune disorder, the actor said he hopes someone will benefit in some way from his health scare.
"Hopefully, that happens," he told the magazine.
