Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis have sparked a debate after resurfaced comments revealed their plans to donate their children’s entire inheritance to charity.
The Hollywood couple – whose combined net worth is reportedly $275m – are at the centre of a debate after a resurfaced report from celebrity gossip account Pop Tingz went viral on Thursday.
“Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis reveal they will donate their $275 million fortune to charity and not leave anything for their children,” read the tweet, which has since received 108.9k likes and 26k retweets. “They say they don’t want their children to become spoiled and entitled, and want them to be motivated to work hard.”
The comments actually came from a 2018 interview, in which the Punk’d star told Armchair Expert host Dax Shepard that he and his wife have no intentions of leaving their money for their two children – daughter Wyatt, eight, and son Dimitri, six. Instead, Kutcher revealed that he and Kunis plan on giving their inheritance to those who actually need it.
“I’m not setting up a trust for them,” Kutcher said. “We’ll end up giving our money away to charity and to various things.”
The 45-year-old actor explained that his reason for giving their money away is because his children are “living a really privileged life, and they don’t even know it. And they’ll never know it, because this is the only one that they’ll know.”
However, Kutcher maintained that he and the Friends with Benefits star will financially support their daughter and son if they ever came to them with a business idea they were passionate about. “If my kids want to start a business, and they have a good business plan, I’ll invest in it. But they’re not getting trusts,” he said.
Despite not wanting their children to grow up entitled, the decision to donate their inheritance to charity has since sparked mixed reactions on social media. Some fans have praised the parenting move amidst an ongoing debate about nepotism in the entertainment industry.
“What’s the opposite of a nepo baby?” asked one person on Twitter.
“I love these two so much,” another user tweeted.
“changing my name to Charity,” joked someone else.
Meanwhile, some believed that Kutcher and Kunis would be leaving their children out in the cold, like one Twitter user who said: “I honestly don’t even see the point in having money if you’re not gonna pass it on to your kids.”
“If my parents did this to me I’d hate them for the rest of my life,” another wrote, while one person said this would be their “super villain origin story”.
However, many people in the comments stressed how their kids will most likely have “access to the best resources and opportunities possible” as the children of successful parents. “You won’t need your parents money if they provide what’s needed for you to work a career or start your own business,” they added.
Still, others simply felt that perhaps “a cute $1 million” was a better deal.
The discourse surrounding nepotism – or more colloquially known as “nepo babies” – sent the internet abuzz last year when a New York Magazine cover story highlighted people in the entertainment industry who’ve had a leg up in Hollywood, thanks to their famous parents.
The phrase “nepo baby” describes the successful children of celebrities whose parents’ famous names and professional connections have helped them become celebrities themselves. Young Hollywood stars such as Dakota Johnson, Jack Quaid, Zoë Kravitz, Ben Platt, Maya Hawke, and Lily Rose-Depp were all featured on the cover, while Kate Hudson and Jamie Lee Curtis were part of the older generation of “nepo” babies.
The decision for Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis to donate their children’s inheritance to charity may not come as a surprise to some. In 2017, the couple revealed that they had not bought any Christmas presents for their children that year in an effort to not raise them “a***holes”.
“So far our tradition is no presents for the kids,” Kunis told Entertainment Tonight at the time. “We’re instituting it this year.”
Instead, the 39-year-old actor explained it was their children’s grandparents who like to spoil them with Christmas presents. “We’ve told our parents, ‘We’re begging you – if you have to give her something, pick one gift,’” she said.
Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis first met while playing on-screen couple Jackie Burkhart and Michael Kelso in the sitcom That ‘70s Show, which aired from 1998 to 2006. The two began dating in 2012 and announced their engagement in 2014.
Shortly after their engagement, the couple welcomed their daughter Wyatt in October 2014. They were married in July 2015, and went on to welcome their second child, son Dimitri, in November 2016.
