A Complete Timeline of Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher’s Relationship

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have a love story that spans decades.

The couple first met in 1998 on the set of That ’70s Show. Though they were a fan-favorite pair on screen, it took some time for them to finally get together in real life. Almost 25 years later, they returned to where it all began in Netflix’s spin-off, That ’90s Show, as their original characters, Jackie Burkhart and Michael Kelso.

Now the duo is happily married with two kids while continuing to expand their successful acting careers. Here’s how Kunis and Kutcher met, parted, and eventually ended up together again.

Their characters were on-off romantically throughout the series, but they had a lot of chemistry. Kunis admitted to People in 2001 that she thought Kutcher was pretty cute and freaked out a little when she read about their kiss in the script.

“I was like, ‘Oh, he’s so cute, it’s the Calvin Klein model!’” she explained. “Then I was like, ‘I have to kiss him?’ I was so nervous and uncomfortable. I had the biggest crush on him.”

Kutcher was also pretty anxious and said he had no idea Kunis was worried.

“I was so nervous. She acted so cool. She seemed as if she’d done it a thousand times,” he said. “I was the one with the butterflies in my stomach. I mean, here’s this little girl, and I have to kiss her. It was nerve-racking.”

The last episode aired in 2006, but Kutcher had already gone another direction...

Much was made over Kutcher’s relationship with Demi Moore, whom he met in 2003. Moore had been married to Bruce Willis, with whom she shared three daughters. Then 25-year-old Kutcher married the 40-year-old actress and moved in with her. He helped to co-parent her teens with Willis as well. They seemed to have a largely functional relationship until allegations of cheating came between them.

In 2011, after six years of marriage, they decided to get divorced. Kutcher tweeted about it at the time, writing, “Marriage is one of the most difficult things in the world and unfortunately sometimes they fail.”

In her statement on the divorce, Moore wrote, “It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I have decided to end my six-year marriage to Ashton. As a woman, a mother, and a wife, there are certain values and vows that I hold sacred, and it is in this spirit that I have chosen to move forward with my life.”

Kunis has spoken respectfully of Kutcher’s previous marriage.

“They had, like, a normal, real relationship,” she said on an episode of the WTF With Marc Maron podcast. “They had three kids they were raising. It was, like, a normal life.”

Meanwhile, Kunis had recently broken up with someone as well: actor Macaulay Culkin. She and Kutcher bumped into one another at the 2012 Golden Globe Awards. Kunis noticed him first.

“I was looking around, and there was a really beautiful man from the back. I was literally like, ‘Oh, he’s kinda hot’…and then he turned around, and I was like, “Oh my god, it’s Kutch,’” she told Maron. “I thought it was the weirdest thing that I was checking this guy out, and it was someone that I had known forever."

Things began casually at first.

“We were like, ‘Let’s just hook up. Let’s have fun. We’re both single. We both trust each other. Everything’s great.’ None of us wanted tension. OK, great. We hooked up for three months,” she said.

About a week later, Kutcher invited Kunis to his housewarming party at his home in Hollywood Hills. While on The Howard Stern Show, Kutcher divulged the circumstances of their first real kiss.

“I think I was smoking cigarettes at the time, and I was still a smoker. And she had quit smoking, and she was like, she wanted me to like shotgun cigarette smoke so she could breathe it in and I was like, ‘All right,’” he said. “And gradually through the night, it got closer and closer and closer … It was kind of obvious that things were happening.”

Kunis had another take on that evening. She said on The Late Late Show, “I found out later in life that my husband was trying to set me up on a blind date with one of his friends that night. So he was like ‘come over,’ and he had a friend he wanted to set me up with, and that didn’t happen.”

After a few months together, Kunis found out that Kutcher was dating someone else at the same time. She realized her feelings had evolved.

“I felt like I got punched in the gut, literally overnight,” she said. “He said something, and I was like…‘Oh, my God. I love this man, and I have to walk away because this is not the agreement that we had. And so I’m going to speak up.’”

He didn’t want to let her go either.

Kunis says that she decided to come clean about her feelings and walk away if he couldn’t reciprocate.

“I was like, you know what, I actually care about you. I don’t want to mess anything up so I’m just going to walk away before it becomes too much,” she said.

He asked her to move in, and it was the beginning of their official relationship.

Almost two years later, Kutcher proposed to Kunis with a diamond ring from Tiffany’s valued at $260,000, though she apparently now keeps it in a vault and wears a $90 ring from Etsy on a daily basis. Kutcher was surprisingly traditional and asked Kunis’ dad for his blessing before popping the question.

“The best day of my life so far was the proposal,” Kunis said. “I cried. I was a mess. Not to discredit any relationships in my past, but this relationship is different.”

She told ELLE Australia,“My engagement ring is in a safety deposit box. I’m like, ‘I can’t wear this because someone’s going to chop my hand off for it.’”

While on the Conan O’Brien show, she explained, “I decided our wedding bands were going to be wonderful and beautiful and simple, and so we got them made on Etsy. I wanted the thinnest possible platinum band. I was like, ‘They’re how much? What, this is astronomical!’ So, I went on Etsy and I was like, ‘$90? Buy now!’ Ashton’s was $100, so technically his wedding band was a little bit more expensive.”

Just after their engagement, Kunis announced she was pregnant on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. They welcomed their baby girl, Wyatt Isabelle Kutcher, on Oct. 1, 2014.

“Mila and I would like to welcome Wyatt Isabelle Kutcher to the world. May your life be filled with wonder, love, laughter, health, happiness, curiosity, and privacy,” Kutcher wrote on his website, sharing photos of many newborns. He asked fans to guess which one is Wyatt. The couple is notoriously private about their kids, so no one will ever know.

Kunis and Kutcher were officially married over Fourth of July weekend in 2015. They tied the knot in a private ceremony at the Secret Garden at Parrish Ranch in Oak Glen, California, according to People. Few details were released, keeping on theme with their desire for privacy.

“It was a ninja effort,” Kutcher said of the event. “We really didn’t want helicopters at our wedding, and it’s a legitimate concern.”

A source at the event said Kunis “wore a white dress with her hair all up,” and that their 9-month-old daughter “also wore a white dress” to match. The insider also said that the grounds were turned into “Camp Kuku,” a play on their last names, and there were loads of outdoor activities and tents to make an adult campground.

On Nov. 30, 2016, the couple welcomed their second child together, a baby boy named Dimitri Portwood Kutcher. Kutcher revealed his wife chose the name while on an episode of The Ellen DeGenres Show. Dimitri was immediately adored by his big sister, too.

“Wyatt thinks the baby is her baby, and at some point I’m going to have to explain to her it’s not really her baby. I don’t know how I’m going to do that. She loves the baby so much,” he said. “It’s like Of Mice and Men. She’s like, ‘I love you and hold you and squeeze you and name you George.’ I’m afraid she’s like Lenny, like, ‘You’re going to squeeze the baby’s head off, honey!’”

Kutcher said Dimitri “loves everyone. Anyone comes near him and he’s like, ‘Hi!’ But when Wyatt comes near him...he’s like Kung Fu Panda when she comes near. He’s afraid she’s going to kill him. I went through a phase where I had to keep Wyatt alive, and then I went through a phase where I had to keep her from killing herself, and now I’m going through a phase where I have to keep her from killing the other baby.”

“She loves this baby—maybe more than me,” he added more seriously, “It’s, like, borderline.”

After many years and two children together, the pair made their first red carpet appearance as a couple at the Breakthrough Prize Awards at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.

The couple and rapper Shaggy starred in a Super Bowl commercial in 2021 for Cheetos. It was Kunis and Kutcher’s first time acting on screen together in years.

Kunis joked to Entertainment Tonight that they wanted to take a break from parenting during quarantine.

“It was quarantine, and we were stuck with our children for nine or 12 months at this moment,” Kunis said. “And I was like, ‘Two days, baby! Two days off!’ Literally we were like, ‘Yeah, okay, let’s do it.’ And so we did it. And I hate saying it, but we were like, ‘Freedom!’”

That ’90s Show takes place in 1995, and the couple signed up for one episode (so far). The main character is Leia Forman, the daughter of the original show’s main characters Eric Forman (Topher Grace) and Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon). She heads to her grandparents’ home for the summer, and shenanigans ensue.

“It was really nostalgic to be back on the set,” Kutcher told Variety. “It’s all the same folks that made That ’70s Show, so it was pretty bizarre.”

They weren’t sure they were going to go back, but it ended up feeling right.

“Mila and I were contemplating it,” Kutcher said. “We thought, ‘Listen, we’re only in the position that we’re in because of that show, so let’s just go back and do this.’ We just went back and had fun for a week. It was so random and fun.”

In January, ahead of the release of Aline Brosh McKenna’s Netflix rom-com Your Place or Mine, Kutcher was interviewed about his return to film by Esquire. In the expansive story, Kutcher discussed how he invested his own money so film production could happen in Los Angeles instead of Georgia. He had wanted to stay close to his family.

“I have young kids, and I like my kids a lot,” he explained. “I like spending time with them.”

Georgia offers tax breaks to Hollywood productions, so Kutcher made a deal with Netflix to take the extra production costs of shooting in Los Angeles from his salary.

“He loves his family so deeply and really is such an incredible dad who shows up every day for his kids,” Witherspoon said of her co-star. “There is no pretense. He is just very comfortable in his own skin. And did I mention he is hysterically funny?”

But in the interview, Kutcher said these compliments were not always applicable. When they first met up again, his wife told him that he had been “an asshole.”

“Was I…?” Kutcher asked her at the time.

“Yeah, you were an asshole for a good two years,” she responded.

Apparently, this was the motivation he needed to improve because he respects his wife’s opinion.

“The thing about Mila that made our relationship accelerate was that I had always admired her,” Kutcher told Esquire. “Her talents, her skills, her gifts. But I knew that she didn’t need me. And she knew that I didn’t need her.”

He added, “We already knew all of each other’s dirt....My wife is so much cooler than me.”

The other small glimpse he gave into their family life was around holiday celebrations, explaining that he was raised Catholic, but Kunis is Jewish.

“So we do Shabbat,” Kutcher said. “And we do Hannukah…but then we also do Christmas...And then we do Passover, but we also do Easter.”

“We have to celebrate,” he concluded.

As Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher promoted their Netflix rom-com Your Place or Mine, fans noted the awkward distance between the two leads on the red carpet. They joked that it signaled a lack of chemistry between the leads of a supposedly romantic film. Apparently, Kunis noticed as well and tried to warn them that they needed to get over their awkwardness immediately.

Kutcher appeared on the Chicks in the Office podcast, saying he didn’t want to start affair rumors with affectionate photos, but he overcorrected.

“My wife called me,” he said. “She texted Reese and I together, and she’s like, ‘Guys, you gotta act like you like each other.’ And I’m like, ‘What is going on?’”

He continued, “Here’s the thing, if I put my arm around her [Reese] and was all friendly with her, I’d be having an affair with her... Like, the rumor would be that I’m having an affair with her. If I stand next to her, I put my hands in my pockets so there’s no chance that like that could be the rumor, the rumor is we don’t like each other. Reese and I are really good friends. We’re really close! I don’t have to defend that.”

Witherspoon confirmed the story more or less during an appearance on Today With Hoda & Jenna.

“I’m better friends with Mila because I’ve known her for a very long time,” Witherspoon said. She got to know Kutcher better on set and says there was never any issue with the romance stuff there.

“He’s so professional,” she said. “He’s the funniest guy. I mean, such a goofball. We had so much fun, and every time he’d wear a funny outfit, I’d text Mila. I’d be like, ‘What is he wearing?’”

And then she got the text back about the press photos.

“She even emailed us last night. She goes, ‘You guys look so awkward on the red carpet together. Why are you just not—’ It’s just fun. When you know a girlfriend so much, it was just fun to get to know her significant other because I’ve loved her for so long,” Witherspoon concluded.

On June 23, Kutcher shared a rare photo of Kunis on his timeline where she’s standing against a gorgeous backdrop of ocean water and a full rainbow in the sky, her arms outstretched and eyes closed. She had her hair back and was wearing a black tank top and delicate necklace.

“I’m the Luckiest man alive. #gratitude,” Kutcher captioned the post.

On Wednesday, December 27, Kutcher and Kunis were seen exiting their private jet in Los Angeles after spending the Christmas holiday in Iowa, where Kutcher’s extended family lives. They were accompanied by their daughter, Wyatt Isabelle, and son, Dimitri Portwood. Kunis was dressed in a matching beige sweatsuit and a black cross body bag with her hair in a bun, while Kutcher wore a gray hoodie and black glasses, plus a baseball cap.

Kunis shared a rare anecdote about her husband at PaleyFest LA on April 19. “I’ll tell you a funny story,” she told her Family Guy co-star Seth Green during a panel, via People. “My kids were at daycare. It’s a hundred years ago, and there was an Ashton and a Mila. They were not related people. They were two different little kids, two separate families.”

“This was first day, and Ashton and I walked in…and there was a random Mila and a random baby Ashton, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is so cute,’” she continued. The children’s parents were apologetic to them. “They were like, ‘I’m so sorry.’ And I was like, ‘No, it’s so cute.’”

Like many, Kutcher and Kunis spent their Sunday afternoon getting brunch—but they didn’t go to any regular brunch. On May 19, they went to Rocco’s WeHo for their famous drag brunch, starring Rocco’s Rocc-ettes. They even stopped to take some photos with queens Butter, Aurora Sexton, La’Don Amour, and Hershii LiqCour-Jete, which the bar posted on Instagram.

“Hangin’ out…down the street of the heart of West Hollywood with @hershiiliqcour & amazing brunch patrons✨,” they wrote in the caption, referencing the That ’70s Show theme song.

Rocco’s also shared some videos of Kunis and Kutcher enjoying the show to their Instagram Story and added the clips to their highlights. In one clip, Kutcher spun a performer around as they danced to “Cotton Eye Joe.”

On Friday, May 24, Kutcher, Kunis, and their kids attended a Fever’s game against the Los Angeles Sparks at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Everyone in the family is a big fan of super star Caitlin Clark, who seems to be a big fan of them as well.

In a video shared on social media, Kunis can be seen getting emotional during the game with her children Dimitri and Wyatt. Afterwards, Clark talked about Kutcher’s support—the actor celebrated Clark’s victories with a photoof them holding hands on Instagram.

“That’s a fellow Hawkeye, somebody that’s been very supportive of me over the course of my college career,” she said at the post-game press conference. “He was encouraging me the whole gam...It was fun to have him courtside. He’s the man.”

On Thursday, July 4, the couple celebrated Independence Day in London, watching Morgan Wallen perform at the British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park. In photos, Kutcher puts his arms around Kunis as they watch the stage, smiling broadly, and later they could both be seen dancing. At one point he leaned his chin on her shoulder to see her expression. She wore a tan blazer over a white button-down with her hair in a ponytail, while he was in a long-sleeved blue T-shirt under a brown button-down and wore a baseball cap.

On July 14, they attended the Cartier Style Et Luxe event at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in Chichester, England.

In mid-August, they were back in California. The couple were photographed holding hands in Beverly Hills after having dinner with some friends at Matu Steakhouse. Kunis wore a gray hoodie, jeans, a crossbody bag, and white sneakers. She had her hair half up and appeared to be without makeup. Kutcher was in a white T-shirt under a buttoned gray short-sleeved cover up. He wore dark baggy jeans and a white Chicago Bears baseball cap on backwards and a pair of aviator sunglasses.

E! asked Kunis if there was any secret to her 10-plus year relationship with Kutcher at the premiere of her film Goodrich on October 8. “I still feel like we're very young and we feel very young,” she said. “I think that's where the spark is.” Additionally, “we laugh at everything.”

She added that though they’ve been together for a decade, it isn’t that impressive to her. “It’s only 10 years. It’s not really that long. I look at my parents, and they’ve been together for 50. That’s long.”

On Oct. 11, the couple were seen in West Hollywood enjoying a rare public date at French restaurant Marvin. Kutcher was wearing jeans, a white shirt, and a navy coat. Kunis had a crew sweater with black-and-white stripes and black pants.

On the weekend before Christmas, the pair were seen walking together in Griffith Park, Los Angeles. Kunis was wearing black leggings under a sweatshirt printed with an eagle, carrying a crossbody bag and wore a pair of white sneakers. She had her hair back in a ponytail and wore round sunglasses. Ashton was in a navy blue and red Chicago Bears sweatshirt and jeans, carrying a jacket in one hand.

In a Hanukkah conversation with Noa Tishby on Thursday, December 26, Kunis credited Kutcher for helping her connect with being Jewish again.

“[He’s Jewish] by choice. By choice? I was like, ‘Why would you choose this?’” she joked. “I fell in love with my religion because he explained it to me. The thing about being Jewish is it’s like a choose your adventure, where you can pick and choose things about it that resonate with you. And there’s no right or wrong way to be Jewish.”

She continued, “I think because I was in a country that didn’t allow for religion. I was raised culturally Jewish, so for me, it’s a culture.”

Kunis added that she was “raised with a lot of guilt.”

“I think I have a fear of not having enough food. My fear of someone being hungry. Like, the worst thing my kids can say to me is, ‘I’m hungry,’” she stated. “Food fixes everything. You’re tired? Eat some food. You’re cranky? Eat some food. … It is just something that’s embedded in me.”

After they rediscovered the religion together, they decided to raise their children with better memories and connections to Judaism.

“My kids very much identify with the religion aspect of it,” she said. “I was like, ‘OK, I guess we’ll do [Shabbat], and we’ll do the candles.’ There’s so much beautiful tradition in it.”

On March 22, Kutcher and Kunis were photographed in Rome with their kids, Wyatt and Dmitri, enjoying a family trip to Italy. They were seen checking out the Pantheon, tossing coins in the Trevi Fountain, taking selfies, and sharing a sweet kiss. Kunis wore a long beige coat over denim jeans and white sneakers. Kutcher was in a peacoat and black jeans with a Bears baseball cap.

On August 2, Kutcher and Kunis went to a Backstreet Boys concert at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

A fan captured video footage of the married couple singing along to “I Want It That Way,” writing that, “Ashton Kutcher and the ever-lovely Mila Kunis were behind us at the Backstreet Boys show at the Sphere tonight. They stole the show on this one with a little fun. They were both gracious to the crowd and fans around them.”

On November 21, Kunis spoke to Extra about her and Ashton’s approach to balancing work and family life. “Ash and I never work at the same time,” the Friends with Benefits actress said, confirming that she commits to about one movie per year. “Neither one of us works, when the kids are in school, out of town.”

She continued, “So if it shoots in L.A.—my next project is shooting in L.A. in January—so I’ll do that. Then the project after that shoots in the summer, outside in a different country. And so we tag team in and out, but neither one of us is ever absent from the kids.” She acknowledged that it’s “a luxury, and I’m really fortunate,” adding, “so I don’t take that for granted either.”

On June 22, Kunis told Drew Barrymore on The Drew Barrymore Show that she and Kutcher have definitely changed over the years, but they have a solid foundation.

“They meet you in whatever state current form that you’re at, right? Like, you go through different levels,” Kunis said. “I mean, I married my best friend. But to back it up, when we reconnected, I was 27. And I was a very different person than I was when I was 25, let alone when I was 21 or 19. You go through different changes and you evolve. Hopefully you grow, you become different.”

She continued, “But he knew me through all of them, and I knew him through all of it, through like the good, the bad, the ugly, you know, and vice versa. So when we reconnected, there was no getting to know each other, there was no, ‘But let me tell you all these hidden secrets.’ There was nothing to hide. So it makes it really easy.”

She added, “There’s an ease about it, and there’s a trust behind it.”