Ashton Kutcher has disclosed that he contemplated taking his own life by jumping off a balcony so he could donate his heart to his critically-ill twin brother.
Appearing on Paramount+'s The Checkup With Dr. David Agus alongside brother Michael, the 44-year-old actor discussed how his twin - who has cerebral palsy - was checked into the emergency room after developing a flu-like illness in the eighth grade.
Doctors diagnosed the then-13-year-old with an enlarged heart and he was given three to four weeks to live without a transplant.
Michael's situation soon became critical after he flatlined and he was then given just 48 hours to live without a heart transplant.
Watch the interview below:Upon hearing that devastating news, the That 70s Show actor revealed that he began to think of possible solutions to help his brother - including how he could be his heart donor.
Kutcher opened up about the difficult moment he watched his brother flatline in hospital: "I was at my friend's house, suddenly my dad picks me up and is like, 'You’re going to go see your brother.'
"And I know that noise because now I've been visiting occasionally and watching the thing go, and it flatlines out. And they're like, 'You've got to [go]', and they're grabbing me, and they take me out and I'm like, 'What the hell is going [on]?'"
After learning about the severity of his brother's condition, the No Strings Attached star went into problem-solving mode, explaining: "I'm thinking to myself, 'If anyone's a match, I'm a match.'
"Now you start running that cycle through your head. You're like, 'This balcony looks far enough to take things,'" he emotionally admitted.
Dr. Agus spoke with Entertainment Tonight about Kutcher's heartbreaking confession and said: "Ashton went to his parents and said, 'Take my heart.' He said it truthfully. He really wanted to give it to his brother.
"The person he loved most in the world, his brother, [was] going through this and he wasn't able to... just push [Michael] along. He had helped his brother with cerebral palsy and some social issues at school, but now here's an issue that he can't fix," the 57-year-old added.
Against all odds, a match was found within 24 hours, which he said was "unheard of," and Kutcher's brother received a heart transplant immediately.
"It's all because some lady checked 'yes' on her driver's license," Kutcher explained, per E! News. "She checked 'yes' on her driver's license, and decided that the most generous thing that she could do with her life is to give life to someone else."
The twin brother expressed that even as a teenager, the harrowing incident made him truly appreciate his family, saying: "You just realize that the fighting that we do as siblings, and the arguing with the parents and 13-year-old behavior just isn't what it's about.
"I'll never forget seeing him and my sister. You don't see a lot of 13-year-olds tell their siblings that they love them. But to me, it was the most important thing that I could do," Michael added.
The first three episodes of The Checkup With Dr. David Agus are available on Paramount Plus now.