On the mend after a secret health scare. Ashton Kutcher opened up about being diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder that left him bedridden.
“Like two years ago, I had this weird, super rare form of vasculitis, that, like, knocked out my vision, it knocked out my hearing, it knocked out, like, all my equilibrium,” the 44-year-old actor says in a sneak peek of his upcoming Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge appearance. “You don’t really appreciate it until it’s gone. Until you go, ‘I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to see again, I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to hear again, I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to walk again.’”
Mayo Clinic defines Vasculitis as inflammation of the blood vessels that can “cause the walls of the blood vessels to thicken, which reduces the width of the passageway through the vessel.” The disorder, which can be a short-term or long-lasting condition, can lead to organ and tissue damage.
Kutcher told Bear Grylls that he’s “lucky to be alive.” He added, however, that the health scare has given him more perspective.
“The minute you start seeing your obstacles as things that are made for you, to give you what you need, then life starts to get fun, right?” he said. “You start surfing on top of your problems instead of living underneath them.”
The host responded, “What do they say in survival? Storms make you stronger. And I think he’s living proof of that.”
This is the first time that Kutcher has publicly spoken about his battle with vasculitis. Last year, his wife, Mila Kunis, made headlines when she was asked about Kutcher’s hospitalization amid his prep to play Steve Jobs in the 2013 film Jobs.
“He was so dumb. He only ate grapes at one point, it was so stupid,” the actress said on Hot Ones in October 2021. “We ended up in the hospital twice with pancreatitis!”
The couple met on the set of That ‘70s Show, which ran for eight seasons from 1998 to 2006, and started dating years after the show wrapped. The pair, who wed in 2015 and share daughter Wyatt, 7, and son Dimitri, 5, are set to reprise their roles on Netflix’s spinoff, That ‘90s Show.
“Mila and I were contemplating it,” Kutcher told Variety last month. “We thought, ‘Listen, we’re only in the position that we’re in because of that show, so let’s just go back and do this.’ We just went back and had fun for a week. It was so random and fun.”
Kutcher’s episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge airs on National Geographic Monday, August 8, at 9 p.m. ET.
