Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher’s Love Story Is Better Than Most Rom-Coms
Is this the case of life imitating art? Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher may now be happily raising two young children, living the domestic life away from the limelight, but before they were reveling in grown-up bliss, the former co-stars were living out some seriously chaotic rom-com antics. Ahead of their wedding anniversary on the Fourth of July, look back fondly at their rather adventurous love story here.
How They First Met
The actors met on the set of That ‘70s Show back in the late 90s, when Kunis, now 35, was just 14, and Kutcher, now 41, was just 18. Chalk it up to their young age, but neither Kunis nor Kutcher considered one another a viable romantic back then, though fans of the series held out hope for a real-life Jackie-Kelso romance.
THAT ’70S SHOW – (Clockwise from top) Topher Grace as Eric, Wilmer Valderrama as Fez, Lisa Robin Kelly as Laurie, Ashton Kutcher as Kelso, Mila Kunis as Jackie, Danny Masterson as Hyde and Laura Prepon as Donna and on THAT 70s SHOW on FOX. (Photo by FOX via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 13: (L-R) Wilmer Valderrama, Topher Grace, Laura Prepon, Danny Masterson, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher attend 50th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on September 13, 1998 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Their Friendship
After the show ended in 2006, the pair kept in touch, mostly with friendly messages back and forth on AIM. “When we first ran into each other, we’d always kept in touch on like AIM…so we always kept in touch since after ’70s,” Kunis told Howard Stern in 2016. “We’d pop up on each other’s thing and be like, ‘Hey, oh my God! How are you? How’s life?’ ‘Like everything’s good!’ ‘Great!’”
At the time, Kunis didn’t expect her relationship with Kutcher to move beyond friendship. “I was single and having the best time ever,” she confessed in that same interview. “And I was like, ‘I’m never getting married.’”
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher got married in a secret wedding on July 4, 2015. Credit: Noel Vasquez/GC Images
When It Shifted
It wasn’t until the pair happened to run into each other at an awards show years after the series had ended when the Black Swan actress first thought of Kutcher as attractive. Or rather, she found his back attractive.
“We were at an awards show, and I was backstage. I was like looking around, and there was like a really beautiful man from the back,” Kunis told Marc Maron on his podcast in 2018. “I was like, ‘What a very nice stature of a gentleman.’ I was literally, like, ‘Ooh, he’s kind of hot.’ I was single. And then he turned around, and I was like, ‘Oh, my god! It’s Kutch!’ I thought it was the weirdest thing that I was checking this guy out, and it was somebody I’d known forever.”
She added more details about the encounter while chatting with Stern. “I’m 5’4’’ and he’s 6’4’’ and I’m wearing this big poofy dress. And then he just turns around, and it was literally like if we were in a movie,” she added. “And the music would start playing and violins would go… I think, for the first time ever, he took my breath away.”
Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis attend Game 2 of the 2016 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers at ORACLE Arena on June 5, 2016 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Why It Was No Longer Platonic
Even after reconnecting, however, the two friends didn’t exactly date. Rather, they opted to take a page out of their hilariously appropriate/comparable rom-coms, No Strings Attached and Friends With Benefits.
One night, Kutcher invited Kunis to his housewarming party (post-split from Demi Moore) with the intention of setting her up with his friend. “He’d been only single for eight months at that point,” she told Stern. “He at this point was trying to set me up with a friend of his.”
When she walked through the door, Kutcher instead ditched the set-up idea and made a move. “I did not come home that night,” she shared. “It was super private. It was the first time ever that I had ever slept over at a guy’s house. I’ll tell you this much — he didn’t let me leave … When I was single, I was adamant about never staying over at a guy’s house. And he was like, ‘You’re not leaving.’”
Watch Ashton Kutcher share with Ellen DeGeneres why his wife, Mila Kunis, is always right. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Stagecoach)
It Turned Complicated for a Bit
“We lived our movies out, where we were like, ‘Let’s just hook up. Let’s have fun. We’re both single. We both trust each other. Everything’s great,’” Kunis told Maron. “None of us wanted tension. OK, great. We hooked up for three months. And just like our movies, one of us caught feelings.”
Three months later, Kunis developed feelings for Kutcher. “I was like, ‘This isn’t fun anymore,'” she told Stern. “We were incredibly open with each other with regards to where we were with our feelings. When I realized when I was nervous was when I spoke to him.”
When They Started Officially Dating
When she shared her feelings with Kutcher, he didn’t miss a beat. Instead, he asked her to move in.
“I don’t even know what to tell you. I think it took my parents by surprise,” the Bad Moms actress said in the same interview with Stern in July 2016. “I think it took everybody by surprise. When I was like, ‘Yeah, I wanna do this,’ I think it took him and I both by surprise. We started dating with both the idea that we would never get married.”
(Shutterstock.com)
The Wedding Details
The couple married on the Fourth of July in 2015 in a private ceremony held at Oak Glen. The pair exchanged vows in the midst of an apple orchard and ponds, and then threw a big party at the lavish Hotel Bel-Air in nearby L.A.
The Honeymoon
The pair enjoyed an RV-filled adventure in California for their honeymoon, stopping by locations like Yosemite and Napa Valley.
Love… And Marriage
Kunis and Kutcher currently share two young children together: Wyatt Isabelle, 4, and Dimitri Portwood. Now that’s what we call a happily ever after!
LOS ANGELES, CA – AUGUST 23: (L-R) Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher play ping pong at Clayton Kershaw’s 6th Annual Ping Pong 4 Purpose on August 23, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Kershaw’s Challenge )
Actors Ashton Kutcher (L) and Mila Kunis attend the 2018 Breakthrough Prize at NASA Ames Research Center on December 3, 2017 in Mountain View, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images)
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