Mila Kunis did not hold back during a candid conversation with Dax Shepard about the beginning of her relationship with now-husband Ashton Kutcher — and neither did the actress’ mom when she found out the twosome were dating.
“From my point of view, it took years before people embraced that Kristen [Bell] and I were in item,” Shepard, 43, began during the Monday, July 23, episode of the “Armchair Expert” podcast. “People were like, ‘Why is America’s sweetheart with a guy [who] I’ve only seen play a dumbass … I feel like there was similar blowback at first with you and Ashton. Was there?”
“I don’t have social media, so there probably was, and I was just shielded from it by him. … I guess I didn’t realized what [any repercussions] would be, but I was like, ‘This is either going to go one way or the other,’” Kunis, 34, replied. “I told my mom I was seeing him. We were driving up Laurel Canyon, and I was like, ‘Mom I have to tell you I’m dating somebody. And she was like, ‘Oh tell me! Who are you dating?’ And I was like,‘You’ve got to brace yourself for this one … I’m dating Ashton Kutcher. And she literally was like, ‘Shut the f—k up’ in Russian.”
She added: “I was like, ‘No I’m serious. I also may be in love with him so… There were so many thoughts that she couldn’t process. … There’s so many versions of his life that people thought he was that he wasn’t.”
Kunis and Kutcher first met on the set of That ‘70s Show in 1998, but their relationship did not turn romantic until 2012, after his very public split from ex-wife Demi Moore. The Spy Who Dumped Me actress and The Ranch star secretly tied the knot in 2015 and share two children: 3-year-old daughter Wyatt and 18-month-old son Dimitri.
The Bad Moms star revealed during her appearance on Shepard’s podcast how Kutcher’s divorce from Moore may have affected her mother’s reaction to their relationship.
“He was coming off of a divorce. He was post, post, post, way post-divorce, but I think there was a lot of misconceptions about the divorce,” Kunis said, seemingly referring to reports that the comedian was unfaithful during his marriage. “And because he’s very private, and respectful, he wasn’t gonna go and say anything so he kind of just let rumors be rumors, and so, people believe in the rumors and kind of just, like, him have this new persona.”
“By the way, amazing choice,” the Parenthood actor added. “I don’t know if I would have made the same choice. I would have had to defend myself publicly.”
Kunis, who specifically referenced reports that Kutcher was unfaithful, explained that rumors didn’t matter to her because she “knew the truth.”
“People had a weird perception of who he was based on rumors that he didn’t correct,” she said. “We went into this relationship super transparent with one another, so we knew 100 percent each other’s faults, we knew exactly who we were. … And we were like, ‘I accept you for who you are.’”
Kutcher, for his part, rarely talks about Moore, whom he was married to from 2005 until their divorce was finalized in 2013. He did, however, speak about the breakup during his own appearance on the “Armchair Expert” podcast back in February.
“Right after I got divorced, I went to the mountains for a week by myself,” Kutcher told Shepard at the time. “I did no food, no drink — just water and tea. I took all my computers away, my phone, my everything. I was there by myself, so there was no talking. I just had a notepad, a pen and water and tea — for a week.”
