CNN
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Ashton Kutcher is reflecting on one of the most difficult periods of his public life – his 2011 separation from then-wife Demi Moore.
In a new interview with Esquire published on Tuesday, the actor recalled how his “life changed” when he began his relationship with Moore in 2003, amid a tabloid frenzy.
“I was twenty-six, bearing the responsibility of an eight-year-old, a ten-year-old, and a twelve-year-old,” he shared, referencing Moore’s now-grown three daughters with her ex-husband Bruce Willis, Tallulah, Scout and Rumer Willis, with whom Kutcher still maintains a relationship.
Kutcher and Moore ultimately divorced in 2013, which Kutcher said made him feel like a “failure.”
“Nothing makes you feel like a failure like divorce,” he said. “Divorce feels like a wholesale f**king failure. You failed at marriage.”
After that relationship, Kutcher went on to date his former “That ’70s Show” costar Mila Kunis, and they married in 2015. They have two children.
Kutcher told Esquire that he was upset when the release of Moore’s tell-all memoir in 2019 invited renewed attention from tabloids.
“I was f**king pissed,” he said. “I’d finally gotten to a place where the press had really laid off me and Mila, and my life and my family. And then the next day, (the paparazzi) are at my kids’ school.”
Nonetheless, Kutcher now has much to be grateful for. He stars in a new romantic comedy with Reese Witherspoon, “Your Place or Mine,” out next month on Netflix, which marks his return to the silver screen almost nine years since his last leading role in a film.
He also recently appeared in the first episode of Netflix’s reboot “That ’90s Show,” in which he again plays Kelso, the role that first put him on the map in “That ’70s Show,” which ran on Fox from 1998-2006.