On Sept. 7, Los Angeles Superior Court sentenced actor Danny Masterson to 30 years to life in prison for drugging and raping two women in the early 2000s. His co-stars from “That 70s Show,” Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, have faced scrutiny for writing letters of support during Masterson’s sentencing.
The couple have been criticized for the content of the letters, in which Kunis described Masterson as “an outstanding role model and friend.” She said he played a large role in keeping her away from drugs throughout her time in Hollywood. Kutcher cited Masterson’s prowess as a friend and father, even referring to an instance in which Masterson defended a stranger against her “belligerent” boyfriend in public.
While over 50 others wrote similar letters of support, including several other co-stars from “That 70s Show,” Kutcher’s and Kunis’ letters have received the most media attention. In a video released on Sept. 9, the couple addressed public concern over the letters, saying that they “support victims.”
“[The letters] were intended for the judge to read and not to undermine the testimony of any of the victims or retraumatize them in any way. We would never want to do that, and we’re sorry if that has taken place,” Kutcher said in the video.
Christy Heiskala, a professional survivor advocate with Haeggquist & Eck, LLP, issued her professional opinion on the letters and the apology video in a LinkedIn post.
“I believe Ashton must have thought those character letters he and Mila wrote at the parent’s request would never become public,” Heiskala wrote. “That was naïve and still doesn’t excuse the fact that he wrote them in the first place.”
After further discontent among the public about the ambiguous apology in the video, Kutcher announced his resignation from his position as Chairman of the Board at Thorn, an organization aimed at combating sex trafficking that he co-founded.
“Victims of sexual abuse have been historically silenced, and the character statement I submitted is yet another painful instance of questioning victims who are brave enough to share their experiences,” Kutcher said in his letter of resignation. “The mission must always be the priority and I want to offer my heartfelt apology to all victims of sexual violence and everyone at Thorn who I hurt by what I did.”
This decision came after “several days of listening, personal reflection, learning, and conversations with survivors,” Kutcher wrote. Kunis additionally has stepped down from her role as an observer on the board.
Heiskala also expressed her discontent with Kutcher’s “willful ignorance” as a longtime advocate in an organization that she admires.
“When you work in this field, you know what survivors go through when they come forward and false reports are extremely rare. You know how incredibly hard and rare it is to get a rapist convicted,” Heiskala wrote.
According to RAINN, 8 out of 10 assaults are committed by someone known to the victim, and the CDC asserts that over half of women and almost 1 in 3 men experience physical sexual violence in their lifetimes. It stands to reason, then, that many people know and are in close contact with perpetrators of sexual violence.
However, based on data from the Department of Justice, RAINN reports that 97.5% of perpetrators of sexual violence face no repercussions for their actions. Yet still, even when a conviction is made, some people continue to support the convicted rapist and refuse to believe the court’s findings.
Samuel Dordulian, the president and owner of Dordulian Law Group, a firm focused on representing survivors of sexual violence and abuse, expressed disdain at Kutcher and Kunis’s supposed dedication to survivors.
“If you’re going to ask for leniency from the judge, in this particular case, then you are calling into question to some degree the legitimacy of the claims being made by the survivors in this case,” Dordulian said. “Why else would you ask for leniency on this particular defendant?”
Dordulian said that one part of Kutcher’s letter — in which he stated that he would trust Masterson to be alone with his own daughter — stood out to him in particular for its gross negligence of the impact his words have on the survivors and demonstrates the disingenuous nature of their apology.
“You are directly calling into question the legitimacy of the claims that the survivor is making because you’re saying that I can’t possibly believe that he would do this because I’m going to trust my daughter with him. But he did do it,”Dordulian said. “A jury of 12 unanimously found that did and is capable of doing these violent crimes.”
Abuse experts agree that it’s common for an abuser to be a good friend and relative to certain people, but an abuser to others. This can cause cognitive dissonance in friends and family of abusers. However, the inability to see a loved one’s capacity for violence does not diminish that capacity.
Dr. Nicole Bedera, a sociologist studying sexual assault, published a study in 2023 in the Journal of Higher Education entitled “I Can Protect His Future, but She Can’t Be Helped: Himpathy and Hysteria in Administrator Rationalizations of Institutional Betrayal.”
In her research, Bedera found that “administrators openly encouraged conversations with perpetrators that would allow them to ‘see the whole person,’ and as a result, enable them to develop sympathy.”
Dordulian similarly expressed that this is a common occurrence in almost every case he handles, especially with character witnesses and letters of support.
“Who this person is also encompasses all the horrible things they have done,” Dordulian said.
In these cases, where celebrities have meaningful power to alter public opinion and perception of the perpetrator — much like the administrators in Bedera’s study — letters like those supporting Masterson perpetuate the myth that family and friends cannot simultaneously be sexual abusers, when in fact, abusers typically occupy both spaces.
“For someone like Ashton Kutcher, who knows that this is going to get the light of day and who claims that he is an advocate for survivors, to make the kind of claims that he did … was just careless at best and inappropriate.”
With his subsequent resignation from Thorn, Kutcher has addressed the carelessness of his actions, citing his dedication to “the mission” of supporting victims and the distraction from Thorn’s efforts caused by his and Kunis’s letters.
Similarly to the administrators in Bedera’s study, these letters “cast male perpetrators of sexual assault as deserving of sympathy, mercy, and protection. To do so, they also minimized the violence that occurred.”
Many of Masterson’s letters of support focus solely on the well-being of the accused, calling for leniency for Masterson and never mentioning the impact his actions had on his survivors.
The victims’ impact statements, however, have received far less media attention, indicating the effect of celebrity status on widespread coverage. These victims have remained anonymous throughout the process and spoke about the impact Masterson’s actions have had on them.
One victim asserts that Masterson “disfigured my life. You stole some crucial pieces of my self-worth and lessened my capacity for joy. You made every part of me turn on myself.”
Another said that “When you’re raped, it’s not your surface that’s been most defiled … It damages you on a cellular level.”
One of the victim responded to the video Kutcher and Kunis posted regarding the letters, saying that the “video was incredibly insulting and hurtful,” in a text message to journalist Yashar Ali which was shared on X.
Dordulian expressed that he sees this level of pain and impact among most of the survivors he works with.
“They really collapse and they really take to heart a lot of these comments,” Dordulian said.
This victim called for the couple to “learn radical accountability and the importance of self-education to learn when to keep their privilege in check — especially Ashton, who claims to work with victims of sex crimes.”
While the public conversation in this case centered on pointing out the issue that lies in Kutcher and Kunis’s support, their words of support set an example of sexual assault apologism.
“There is empirical evidence to corroborate decades of survivors’ claims that their perpetrators were treated with more sympathy than they received,” Bedera wrote.
However, Kutcher and Kunis have affirmed to the public that they have learned from this mistake and have taken it upon themselves to impose the self-reprimand of stepping down from Thorn.
Despite affirming that they respect the law and the decision of the court, their heartfelt sentiments for survivors of abuse, and the admission of an “error in judgment,” neither Kutcher nor Kunis has yet to verbally affirm that they regret writing the letters — or apologize directly for that action. Instead, they have only apologized for its consequences.