Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis have released a video statement which states they “support victims” following the backlash from the letters of support they wrote for their fromer co-star Danny Masterson, who has been convicted of rape.
Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis faced backlash after documents showed that they asked a judge for leniency before their That ‘70s Show co-star Danny Masterson was sentenced for raping two women.
Danny was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison on Thursday 7 September following his conviction for two counts of rape.
Now, on Saturday 9 September, Ashton and Mila have released a joint video statement on their Instagram, apologising for any hurt they may have caused, as they also explained why they wrote the character letters.
Ashton started off in the video and said: “We are aware of the pain that has been caused by the character letters that we wrote on behalf of Danny Masterson”
Mila continued: “We support victims, we have done this historically through our work and we continue to do so in the future.”
Explaining how they came to write the character letters, Ashton said: “A couple of months ago 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”.
Mila added: “The letters were not written to question the legitimacy of the judicial system or the validity of the jury’s ruling”.
Ashton revealed that the letters were for “the judge to read” and not to “undermine the testimony of the victims or re-traumatise them in any way.”
He continued: “We would never want to do that, and we are sorry if that has taken place”.
Mila concluded the statement and said: “Our heart goes out to every single person who’s ever been a victim of sexual assault, sexual abuse or rape”.
In the letters, which were first published by Los Angeles-based court reporter Meghann Cuniff on Friday 8 September, Ashton reportedly called Danny a “positive influence on me” while Mila reportedly said he was a “brother figure”.
Mila and Ashton, who have been married since 2015, starred in That ‘70s Show together alongside Danny, with the show running for six years between 1998 and 2006.
Kutcher and Mila Kunis have released a joint statement which states they “support victims” following the backlash from the letters of support they wrote for co-star Danny Masterson
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