Ashton Kutcher says when his twin brother needed a heart transplant he considered suicide to give him his
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Ashton Kutcher has revealed that he considered killing himself so he could donate his heart to his twin brother who was in desperate need of a transplant.
The 44-year-old actor has a close relationship with his twin brother Michael who was born with cerebral palsy - so much so that the star admitted he was willing to give his life to save his brother.
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The brothers appeared on Paramount Plus’ The Checkup With Dr. David Agus, where they opened up about their relationship and living with Michael’s illness.
Speaking about the day he discovered just how seriously ill Michael was, he said: “So then my dad comes, picks me up, and it's like, we're going to go see your brother and I'm like…everything is not okay. And he flatlines in the room.
“And I know that noise because now I've been visiting occasionally and watching the thing go and it flatlines out. And they're like, 'You've got to [go]', and they're grabbing me, and they take me out and I'm like, ‘what the hell is going [on]?’”
When the family were told that Michael needed a heart transplant, Ashton said he began to think about throwing himself from a balcony.
“I’m thinking to myself, ‘If anyone’s a match, I’m a match',” Ashton said.
“Now you start running that cycle through your head. You're like, 'This balcony looks far enough to take things'.”
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Dr. Agus said of this moment in Ashton and Michael’s lives: “Ashton went to his parents and said, 'Take my heart'. He said it truthfully. He really wanted to give it to his brother.”
Thankfully, after he and his family had been told Michael had just 24 hours to live, a match was found and he underwent a transplant.
But just two years later, Michael developed a blood clot and had to have open heart surgery - it was at this point, Kutcher began to question how he had been ‘so lucky’ while his brother suffered with such ill health.
"I think standing on the balcony going, 'I'm a match', that moment is probably the exact moment the shift took place," Ashton said. "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, then have this random blood clot... Who has to go through that? How do I get to be this lucky?'"
The first three episodes of The Checkup With Dr. David Agus are available on Paramount Plus now.
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