As a successful actor, model, and venture capitalist, the spotlight on Ashton Kutcher often leaves his fraternal twin brother Michael in the dark. The pair opened up about their relationship in a rare interview on the new Paramount+ series 'The Checkup with Dr. David Agus,' who is Ashton's doctor and first discussed the star's autoimmune condition vasculitis.
Then both brothers sat down to discuss Michael's cerebral palsy, and a teary-eyed Ashton described the emotional moment when his brother almost died quite young after contracting viral myocarditis that caused his heart to fail while Ashton was in the ICU room with him. He said he considered jumping off a balcony to help his brother since his heart would be a match, but fortunately Michael received a donor heart, though he later needed open heart surgery for a blood clot.
The 'That '70s Show' star felt guilty at his success amid his brother's misfortune, until his brother called him out. “He looked at me and he said, ‘Every time you feel sorry for me, you make me less,’” Ashton recalled. “He said ‘This is the only life I’ve ever known, so stop feeling sorry for the only thing I have.’ And that then created an entire shift back to where I think we are today, which is straight up equals again.”
Michael also spoke about the difficulty that came with feeling jealous about how much attention his brother received, as well as a moment when Ashton shared publicly that Michael had cerebral palsy, which is something Michael had yet to share. Ashton said he hadn't known it was a secret. Michael explained that he eventually he left his grudge about his brother's fame behind. "Once I took all of the fame and everything out of it, I was able to just, you know, come back to him," Michael said.
Hollywood is filled with famous twins. The world of sport, too, has some well-known double acts. Twins share a unique bond and they can sometimes even pack twice the talent. But how many personalities can you name who have either a twin brother or a twin sister?
Click through the following gallery and look twice at this list of celebrities you didn't know were twins.