Ashton Kutcher couldn’t be the man he is today without his wife, Mila Kunis, and their two children.
While receiving the Robert D. Ray Pillar of Character Award in his native Iowa, the usually private actor opened up about his family.
Kutcher kicked off his speech by joking that he is probably the first to win the award after being arrested at the age of 18 for “felony burglary for trying to break into his high school,” and getting “pulled over by a state trooper while tripping on mushrooms.”
But Kutcher credits his past with building his character today. “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you learn from the mistakes that you make and how you perceive the world that’s coming at you,” he said.
“Because life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you. Every. Single. Time,” he said. “And as long as you have love and kindness and optimism and a pursuit of something greater in your heart, you’re the lucky one. So this award is for you. It is for my family, it’s for all four of my parents, it’s for my wife, who kicks my ass on character every day.”
“I mean, I’m telling you, this morning, I woke up and she kicked my ass on character,” he said. “I thought I was awesome because I got up early and helped with the kids before she woke up and I let her sleep a little bit and then she’s like, ‘Well, now you’re gonna act tired? I do it every day.’ But it was a character moment, right? Because she’s right!”
Kunis and Kutcher are the proud parents of two children, daughter Wyatt, 2, and son Dmitri, 4 months.
Kutcher continued, “But the greatest, greatest lesson in character in my life are my kids. When I had these kids, my wife and I had these kids and we got to share that amazing, amazing, amazing honor, my first response was, I wanted to call my parents and say, ‘I’m sorry, because I never knew how much you loved me.'”
The actor also took a moment to open up about his twin brother Michael Kutcher. He held back tears as he talked about their bond and his brother’s struggles.
“My brother was born with cerebral palsy and it taught me that loving people isn’t a choice and that people aren’t actually all created equal,” he said. “The Constitution lies to us. we’re not all created equal. We’re all created incredibly inequal to one another, in our capabilities and what we can do and how we think and what we see. But we all have the equal capacity to love one another, and my brother taught me that.”
“He also taught me that he had gifts that I didn’t have. Extraordinary gifts that I didn’t have, and that every time I felt sorry for him in life, I made him less. He taught me that and he gave that to me,” Kutcher said.
(H/T E! News)
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