Ashton Kutcher Reveals He Once Considered Jumping Off a Balcony to Save His Brother's Life

By Stephen Andrew

Ashton Kutcher recently sat down with his twin brother Micheal to discuss their relationship, as well as Michael's health issues. The Cedar Rapids, Iowa natives are guests on the first episode of The Checkup with Dr. David Angus, a new Paramount+ exclusive health and lifestyle series. During the conversation, Ashton recalled a time when the two had to travel for Michael to get medical care, and the teen — who was born with cerebral palsy — nearly died. 

Michael's near-death experience had a profound impact on Ashton, who Ashton revealed that he briefly considered jumping off a balcony to save his sibling's life so he could donate his own heart to him. "I'm standing on the balcony, thinking about jumping off, and my dad comes out and says, 'What are you thinking about?' I tell him. He comes over and says, 'You can't do that' – and right then the doctors come rushing out." Ashton shared what the doctors urgently told the family, recalling someone saying, "We have to prepare the OR. A woman died in Florida in a car accident, and there's a heart on the way."

Elsewhere in the conversation, as shared in an exclusive clip from ET, Ashton opened up about his guilty feelings over his brother's diagnosis. "How do I get to be this lucky? And for my brother to be born with cerebral palsy, then have a heart transplant, then have this random blood clot," he said. "These things where you're like, 'Who has to go through that? How do I get to be this lucky?'"

Ashton later shared that he learned to stop comparing his life to that of his sibling, and explained exactly what led him to the revaluation. "There was a moment in all of this where I moved to New York and was starting to get some traction with my career and Mike came out to visit and stay, and he looked at me and he said, 'Every time you feel sorry for me, you make me less,'" Ashton shared candidly. "He said, 'This is the only life I've ever known, so stop feeling sorry for the only thing I have.'"

He continued, "That then created an entire shift back to where I think we are today, which is straight-up equals. That's it." The first three episodes of The Checkup with Dr. David Angus are now streaming on Paramount+.

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