In 2019, Ashton Kutcher experienced a 'life-threatening' illness. He said Mila Kunis saved him.

Content warning: This story includes descriptions of child sexual abuse that may be distressing to some readers.

Ashton Kutcher along with his wife Mila Kunis are notoriously private people – even though they are one of Hollywood's most recognisable celebrity couples.

They've been married for seven years and share two young children together. But other than those two facts, there is little known about their life away from the spotlight – and that's been a conscious decision from both of them.

As Kutcher recently said about fame and his kids: "We don't share any photos of our kids publicly because we feel that being public is a personal choice. Future privacy will be the new celebrity."

But recently, Kutcher opened up about his challenges with a rare autoimmune disorder, along with his difficult relationship with his twin brother. And it has lots of people talking.

Watch: Ashton Kutcher on his kids and trust funds. Post continues below.

Kutcher struggled a lot with his health in 2019, after being diagnosed with a rare autoimmune condition which at one point left him unable to see, hear or walk.

"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," Kutcher said on Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge.

He said it took him "about a year" in order to get back to his healthy self.

Vasculitis is a rare auto-immune disorder which involves the inflammation of the blood vessels – resulting in restricted blood flow.

"You don't really appreciate it [your health] until it's gone," Kutcher shared. "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.' I'm lucky to be alive."

Three years ago, Ashton Kutcher woke up and suddenly couldn't see or hear clearly. Now, in a new @paramountplus series, he's opening up about his vasculitis scare with his doctor @DavidAgus: "[It] knocked out my hearing, which threw off my equilibrium... and I couldn't walk." pic.twitter.com/WgjBjwHDDw

— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 5, 2022

It's something Kutcher kept private for years, saying it took him a while to mentally process the whole ordeal – but was thankful for his wife's support.

Kunis and Kutcher met each other on the 1998 TV series That '70s Show while playing an on-screen couple. While they weren't dating in real life back then, six years after the show wrapped they became an official couple.

Kunis and Kutcher are notoriously private about their relationship and family, but recently shared a fair bit via Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast. With two young kids, daughter Wyatt and son Dimitri, Kutcher said he and his wife have no plans of passing down their immense fortune. 

"My kids are living a really privileged life, and they don't even know it. I'm not setting up a trust for them. We'll end up giving our money away to charity and to various things," Kutcher explained.

Kunis shared a similar sentiment in an Entertainment Tonight interview, noting that Christmas gifts aren't a major thing in their household.  

"Our tradition is no presents for the kids. They don't even know what they're expecting; they're just expecting stuff."

Of the kind of parents they are, Kunis has previously said she and Kutcher are "quite goofy" with their kids.

"I think that’s just [us] being idiots. We’re very comfortable with ourselves acting a fool at home, but maybe that comes from the idea of being comfortable in your own body, and in your own skin, and in your mind and not having a fear of making a fool of yourself."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk)

Family has often been a big talking point for Kutcher during interviews – but there's been one such topic not as often discussed. And that's to do with his twin brother.

Michael had a heart transplant at 13 and lives with cerebral palsy. Ashton said seeing what his brother went through, and the treatment he received for having cerebral palsy was hard to watch "as a twin".

"It taught me that people aren't actually all created equal. We're all created incredibly unequal to one another, in our capabilities and what we can do and how we think and what we see. But we all have the equal capacity to love one another."

Michael currently works as a motivational speaker.

Over the years, the two have occasionally appeared on red carpets together. But Kutcher explained this week that the pair have experienced a divide in their relationship at times. 

Ashton Kutcher's twin brother Michael gets candid about his "jealousy" and how his brother's successful acting career pushed them apart. pic.twitter.com/X6jucfiTrT

— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) December 5, 2022

While watching his brother's health struggles, Kutcher said it made him wonder, "How do I get to be this lucky?"

"For my brother to be born with cerebral palsy, then have a heart transplant, then have this random blood clot, these things that you're just like, 'Who has to go through that?'" Kutcher said on The Checkup With Dr. David Agus.

When asked why they drifted apart, Michael said: "Jealousy, at least on my part."

Kutcher revisited an exchange that occurred with his twin in the early days of Kutcher's fame rising.

"He looked at me, and he said, 'Every time you feel sorry for me, you make me less,'" Kutcher said. "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. That's it."

Ashton and his twin brother Michael. Image: Getty.

Another topic close to Kutcher's heart is his work in aiming to combat online child sexual abuse.

In 2012, Kutcher and his then-partner Demi Moore co-founded Thorn – an engineering and data science team that works on developing new technologies and software to combat this mentioned issue.

With the work of Thorn CEO Julie Cordua, the team of 'digital defenders' prototyped a product to aid in identifying child sex trafficking victims who were sold online. They then developed this tech product and provided it free to law enforcement in 2014. 

In 2017, Kutcher spoke at the US Senate about Thorn and the importance of working to end online child sexual abuse.

"One of my jobs is that of being a father of two. As part of that job that I take very seriously I believe it is my effort to defend their right to pursue happiness and to ensure a society and government that defends it as well. But the right to pursue happiness for so many is stripped away," he said.

"I've been on the other end of a phone call with my team asking for my help because we had received a call from the Department of Homeland Security telling us that a seven-year-old girl was being sexually abused and that content was being distributed across the dark web. She had been abused for three years and they [Department of Homeland Security] could not find the perpetrator and asked us for help. An actor and his foundation were the last line of defence."

Kutcher's speech went viral soon after. Today, Thorn works alongside a broad coalition of major organisations and advocates addressing the online sexual exploitation of children in all forms. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Thorn (@thorn)

Reflecting on his health scare and life today, Kutcher said his wife was key to his recovery. He opened up about it more this week in a conversation with his physician for The Checkup with Dr. David Agus.

"I will say, your wife was amazing," Agus said of Kunis. "Just curled up there by your side. It was a beautiful thing to watch."

Ashton agreed, saying about his wife: "She's the best."

And after managing the autoimmune condition as best as he could, Kutcher said the whole experience has changed his mindset around perseverance and resilience. 

"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? You start surfing on top of your problems instead of living underneath them."

If this brings up any issues for you, contact Bravehearts, an organisation dedicated to the prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse, on 1800 272 831.

This article was originally published on August 9, 2022 and was updated on December 7, 2022 with new information.

Feature Image: Getty.