Ashton Kutcher quickly became the subject of a social media firestorm after an old clip resurfaced of him joking about underaged actresses, including Hilary Duff.
In a video shared by Chrissie Carnell Bixler — one of Danny Masterson’s accusers — via her Instagram Stories on Saturday, September 9, Ashton, 45, was seen in a 2003 episode of Punk’d. During his on-screen moment, the former Two and a Half Men star said that the Lizzie McGuire actress, 35, was “one of the girls that we’re all waiting for to turn 18 [sic], along with the Olsen twins.” Hilary was 15 years old at the time while Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were 17. Ashton was 25 at the time.
X (previously known as Twitter) erupted over the video, as multiple social media users reshared the footage to slam Ashton for his past comments.
“Ashton Kutcher is a slime ball,” one X user tweeted later that day, adding, “To all the people telling on themselves, it’s not normal to express desire for a child to age quickly so you can sleep with them, plz guzzle a gallon of milk after it’s been in the sun for two weeks thank u [sic].”
Others also pointed out that Ashton and Hilary were co-stars in Cheaper by the Dozen.
“What makes this even more nauseating is in 2002/2003, a 24 or 25-year-old Ashton Kutcher worked with a 15 or 16-year-old Hilary Duff on the set of Cheaper By the Dozen. Him then going on to say this … I don’t have a single positive thing to say about Ashton Kutcher.”
In addition to the Punk’d footage, Chrissie also shared a video to her Instagram Stories of Danny, 47, recalling the moment when he and Mila, 40, were cast on That ‘70s Show.
“Fourteen, she was even hotter [then], if I’m allowed to say that,” he said in the clip.
Ashton and Mila faced major backlash after it was revealed that they wrote letters to the judge in favor of Danny in his sexual assault trial. After being convicted of two counts of rape in May, Danny was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison on September 7. Two days later, Ashton and Mila issued a public apology regarding the letters.
“We are aware of the pain that has been caused by the character letters that we wrote on behalf of Danny Masterson,” Ashton said in the clip posted on September 9, while Mila added, “We support victims. We have done this historically through our work and will continue to do so in the future.”
Ashton went on to explain that months beforehand, “Danny’s family reached out to us, and they asked us to write character letters to represent the person that we knew for 25 years so that the judge could take that into full consideration relative to the sentencing.”
“The letters were not written to question the legitimacy of the judicial system or the validity of the jury’s ruling,” Mila insisted before Ashton explained, “They were intended for the judge to read and not to undermine the testimony of the victims or re-traumatize them in any way. We would never want to do that. And we’re sorry that has taken place.”