Many celebrities are known for their eccentricities, so it’s no surprise to hear that Ashton Kutcher had an unusual way of coping with his split from Demi Moore.
Five years later, he’s sharing the details of his odd post-breakup behavior. This doesn’t sound particularly healthy.
In fact, it’s seen him accused of being a “pervert.”
Ashton Kutcher’s fought infidelity accusations now that he’s with Mila Kunis, but he was accused of cheating on Demi Moore during their famous marriage.
Right now, though, he’s opened up about his post-divorce process in an interview with Dax Shepard for the Armchair Expert podcast.
“Right after I got divorced, I went to the mountains for a week by myself.”
Isolation can be healing for some but nightmarish for others. It sounds like he had a good time, though he made some odd choics.
“I went into Big Sky in Montana, and I did no food, no drink — just water and tea.”
That, folks, is not a healthy diet. That is called starvation.
“I took all my computers away, my phone my everything … I just had a notepad and a pen and water and tea for a week.”
If you’re wondering if his diet of literal starvation had any effects, it did.
“I started to hallucinate on day two, which was fantastic … It was pretty wonderful.”
(Gosh, what kind of metabolism must he have if he’s hallucinating after skipping one day of eating? It takes most people longer than that, not that we’d recommend it to anyone)
“I was doing taiji with my own energy.”
Taiji quon, often improperly anglicized as “tai chi,” is supposed to work like that. But you’re not supposed to hallucinate or be malnourished while you do it.
“I was just doing what came to me.”
But his spiritual fitness regiment wasn’t what proved to be so controversial. And neither was his horrifying experimental diet.
“I wrote down every single relationship that I had where I felt like there was some grudge or some anything and then I wrote letters to every single person and sent the letters on day [seven].”
Oh wow. That sounds … intense.
“I typed them all out and sent them. It was almost like an AA exercise, where I was like, ‘I probably have done some damage,’ so I just cleared [my] palate.”
That must have been intense for him to write in his … altered state of mind. It must have been even stranger for these women to have received.
All in all, he says that the experience was “really spiritual and kind of awesome.”
But after he shared this, people took to Twitter to express their thoughts.
“That’s just weird,” wrote one user.
Another wanted to know why he was opening up old wounds:
“And you’re bringing this up now? Why?! Everyone’s moved on. Why talk about this now when so many years have passed?”
That’s a fair question.
But then he also got called a “lunatic” and “pervert.”
That seems … uncalled for, right?
No doctor is going to recommend a starvation diet.
But in general, therapists recommend that if you think that something (within reason) will help you get over a breakup, it’s likely to.
If it’s some sort of fitness regime or spiritual or religious activity (Kutcher sort of fused those), or taking a vacation or sabbatical or even just spending more time with friends, you’re likely to meet your recovery expectations.
However, some folks might question his “making amends” through letters.
First of all, he was in an altered state of consciousness, which is part of some spiritual practices but not an ideal headspace for writing a letter of apology to an ex.
Second of all, in general, not everyone wants your statement of amends. Whether you’re sober or just woke up one day and realized that you were terrible to a lot of people, some find the “amends” process of AA and similar groups to be selfish.
As far as many people are concerned, you had your chance to leave a good impression and you blew it. They don’t want to see your face or hear from you again.
Still, we don’t know that Ashton Kutcher’s alleged cheating or any other behavior really amounts to grounds to call him a “pervert.”
