After meeting on the set of That ’70s Show in 1998, actors — and now spouses — Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis have lived out a real-life romantic comedy. While the two are set to reunite on the small screen for this year’s Cheetos Super Bowl commercial, an event which anyone can watch for free this year, the parents-of-two have been hesitant to work together since becoming a couple. Kunis explained that they jumped at the opportunity to work after quarantining for months with their two kids, 6-year-old daughter Wyatt and 4-year-old son Dimitri.
“It’s so silly! Ashton and I, we never work together,” Kunis told Entertainment Tonight. “I mean, I know we worked together before… And in the midst of quarantine, they sent us this ad to do and every time I’ve ever been offered a Super Bowl ad it’s always a female having to be scantily clad. And this one comes around, I started laughing so hard and Ashton was like, ‘This is kind of funny.’ And I was like, ‘We should do it!’ Also it was quarantine and we were stuck with our children for nine, 12, months at this moment, and I was like, ‘Two days, baby! Two days off,’” Kunis joked. Literally we were like, ‘Yeah, OK, let’s do it.’ And so we did it,” she said with a laugh. “And I hate saying it but we were like, ‘Freedom!’… It was amazing!”
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“I love my children so very much! So, so much!” Kunis added, claiming that she’s “never been so excited to wake up at five in the morning to be like, ‘I’m going to work!’ And I literally skipped out of the house. My kids were like, ‘You’re abandoning us!’ And I was like, ‘Relax.’”
How They Met
Kunis explained that she and Kutcher’s family had become extra “co-dependent” during the pandemic, and this level of closeness has been over twenty years in the making. They played boyfriend and girlfriend on That ’70s Show when Kunis was 14 and Kutcher was 19, and while Kunis had a crush on him, nothing romantic happened between them. “I was like, ‘Oh, he’s so cute, it’s the Calvin Klein model!’” Kunis told People. “Then, I was like, ‘I have to kiss him?’ I was so nervous and uncomfortable. I had the biggest crush on him.”
Seeing Other People
Kutcher left the show in 2005, and while they kept in touch in the classic ’00s way — over AIM and when Kunis appeared on an episode of Punk’d— they eventually grew apart. Kutcher married Demi Moore in 2005, and Kunis was in a long term relationship with Macauley Culkin. However, both of those relationships ended in 2011.
Reconnecting At the 2012 Golden Globes
At the 2012 Golden Globes, Kunis and Kutcher reconnected, and it was clear that something new was developing between them. “I was looking around, and there was a really beautiful man from the back,” she explained Marc Maron on his podcast. “I was literally like, ‘Oh, he’s kinda hot.’ … And then he turned around, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s Kutch.’ I thought it was the weirdest thing that I was checking this guy out, and it was someone that I had known forever.”
Life Imitating Art
The couple soon shared a kiss at Kutcher’s housewarming party and life imitated art when they starting casually hooking up, like in her Friends With Benefits and his No Strings Attached. They moved in together later that year. “I was like, you know what, I actually care about you. I don’t want to mess anything up so I’m just going to walk away before it becomes too much,” she told Maron. “And he was like, ‘Got it.’ And the next day, he showed up to my house and he was like, ‘Move in with me’ and I said, ‘OK.’” Kutcher’s divorce from Moore became official in 2013, and in January 2014, Kunis was seen sporting a sparkling ring on the all-important finger.
Their First Child
The news became official when Kunis announced that the couple was engaged and expecting their first child in May 2014 on The Ellen Degeneres Show. Their daughter, Wyatt, was born in September, and Kutcher sang the praises of Kunis on The Ellen Degeneres Show. “The most amazing thing about having a baby is my partner, Mila,” he gushed. “She’s the greatest mom, I can’t even. I go to work every day and I come home and she’s, like, perfect. And it just seems like everything went amazing. And I know that something probably didn’t go amazing, but she never tells … it’s unbelievable. She’s incredible.”
Making It Official
Despite Kunis’ mistrust of marriage, the couple tied the knot on July 4, 2015. “Commitment sounded great, but I didn’t believe in marriage,” Kunis explained to Elle. “I grew up in West Hollywood, and my brother has reminded me that when I was like 12, I said, ‘When gay people can get married, then I’ll get married.’ I was ahead of my time. The Supreme Court decision [on same-sex marriage came down], and that’s when Ashton and I got married.”
Growing Their Family
The low-key couple welcomed their son, Dimitri, in Nov. 2016 and have been keeping their family out of the public eye ever since. Kunis said on the Teach Me Something New podcast in March 2020 that they’re homebodies. “We’re very goofy parents when it comes to our children, but that doesn’t [mean we] have skill,” she explained. “I think that’s just [us] being idiots. We’re very comfortable with ourselves acting a fool at home, but maybe that comes from the idea of being comfortable in your own body, and in your own skin, and in your mind and not having a fear of making a fool of yourself.” You can catch Kunis and Kutcher onscreen together again on Feb. 7 as they make their play for winning Best Super Bowl Commercial 2021.
