When they reconnected years later, he invited her to a housewarming party, and they shared their first off-screen kiss there.
Developing a friendship before falling in love can be a great way to build a solid foundation for a relationship. Not everyone gets to have that and those who do, are lucky. Ashton Kutcher, 43, and Mila Kunis, 37, met on the set of That 70s Show when they were teens and continued to stay in touch over the years before falling in love with each other.
Now parents of two kids, the couple didn't get together until January 2012. "I was looking around, and there was a really beautiful man from the back," Kunis told Marc Maron on his podcast, according to InStyle, about seeing him at the Golden Globes. "I was literally like, 'Oh, he's kinda hot.' ... 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 someone that I had known forever."
He invited her to a housewarming party in the Hollywood Hills, and they shared their first off-screen kiss. "I think I was smoking cigarettes at the time, and I was still a smoker," Kutcher told Elle. "And she had quit smoking and she was like, she wanted me to like shotgun a cigarette smoke so she could breathe it in and I was like, 'All right.' And I started doing this. And gradually through the night, it got closer and closer and closer ... It was kind of obvious that things were happening."
However, long before their kiss as a real-life couple, they had kissed on-screen when they played a reel-life couple. Kutcher was Kunis's first kiss and she used to have a crush on him back then. Ironically, that first kiss was awkward for them because their relationship then was sibling-like.
"I was 19, she was like 14. Yeah, I did her chemistry homework for her. I think I was her first kiss, like, on the show. We have our first kiss memorialized on a TV show!" Kutcher told Howard Stern, according to Elle. "It was really weird. I was like, 'Isn't this illegal? Like can I-am I allowed?'" he said, adding, "It was really awkward because I'm like a 19-year-old kid." He felt no attraction for her back then. "She was 14! She was like my little sister. I wanted to make sure she was okay," he added.
He insisted that she had a crush on him when they worked together. "She has like, a journal or like, a diary from when she was a kid where she wrote, 'Oh, this guy's hot.' She thought I was cute! At first I think she thought that I was good-looking, and then shortly thereafter, I was just annoying to her, because I was like a big brother," he clarified. "It was like, 'He's annoying, because he's always looking out for my best interest.'"
The Bad Moms actress had a crush on her co-star and now-husband when they were on the show together. "I was like, ‘Oh, he’s so cute, it’s the Calvin Klein model!'" Kunis told People. "Then I was like, ‘I have to kiss him?’ I was so nervous and uncomfortable. I had the biggest crush on him," she added. Her teenage crush ended up in what we hope turns into a lifetime of happiness.
The My Boss's Daughter actor revealed more details of how they actually started dating and it was very movie-like. Both of them had starred in rom coms No Strings Attached (Kutcher) and Friends With Benefits (Kunis), and their real-life followed the plots of those similar movies. "We legitimately lived out our movies," he said. "It was weird and fast and—you know at the time it was honestly like okay, we're going to be in this—we have an agreement around [our friends with benefits relationship].
They tied the knot in 2015, and have been together ever since. "Commitment sounded great, but I didn't believe in marriage," Kunis told Elle. "I grew up in West Hollywood, and my brother has reminded me that when I was like 12, I said, 'When gay people can get married, then I'll get married.' I was ahead of my time. The Supreme Court decision [on same-sex marriage came down], and that's when Ashton and I got married."
References:
https://www.instyle.com/celebrity/mila-kunis/mila-kunis-ashton-kutcher-relationship-timeline#
https://people.com/tv/mila-kunis-and-ashton-kutcher-recall-first-kiss-on-that-70s-show/
https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/news/a37613/mila-kunis-ashton-kutcher-love-story/
Cover image source: Getty Images | Photo by (L) Chris Weeks (R) Jesse Grant
