Ashton Kutcher has resigned from Thorn, the anti-child sex abuse organization he co-founded in 2009, after facing backlash for writing a character statement asking for leniency for convicted rapist Danny Masterson during his recent sentencing.
Time reports Kutcher submitted a letter of resignation to Thorn’s board on Sept. 14, which read, “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.”
The letter continues, stating that he and his wife, Mila Kunis, who also wrote a character statement for Masterson, “spent several days of listening, personal reflection, learning, and conversations with survivors and the employees and leadership at Thorn, I have determined the responsible thing for me to do is resign as Chairman of the Board, effectively immediately.”
“I cannot allow my error in judgment to distract from our efforts and the children we serve,” Kutcher wrote. He concluded his letter by offering a “heartfelt apology to all victims of sexual violence and everyone at Thorn who I hurt by what I did.”
Niesha Trout, one of the victims Masterson was charged with assaulting, responded to the news of Kutcher’s resignation on X. “Wow. But still not a single, solitary apology to Chrissie, Jen, and myself. Ashton and Mila, you are breathtakingly fraudulent beings. Keep learning I guess,” she wrote in a tweet, before adding in another post later on, “Or an apology to ALL of Danny’s victims. How about that. There are many. And they all matter.”
Kutcher and Kunis have been facing extensive backlash for submitting letters to the judge presiding over Masterson’s case in a last bid for leniency before his sentencing.
In their letters, they praised his “exceptional character” and said he served as a “role model” and “older brother figure.” Both actors highlighted that Masterson helped keep them away from drugs.
In his letter, Kutcher wrote, “While I’m aware that the judgement has been cast as guilty on two counts of rape by force and the victims have a great desire for justice. I hope that my testament to his character is taken into consideration in sentencing. I do not believe he is an ongoing harm to society and having his daughter raised without a present father would a tertiary injustice in and of itself.”
After the letters were released, Kutcher was pointedly criticized for supporting Masterson considering his own past as an advocate for sex abuse and sex trafficking victims.
Masterson was still sentenced to 30 years to life after being convicted for drugging and raping two women in 2001 and 2003, around the same time Masterson, Kunis, and Kutcher co-starred on That ’70s Show.
Kutcher’s resignation comes after he and his wife issued a public apology, in which they maintained that they “support victims.”
“A couple of months ago, Danny and his family reached out to us and they asked us to write character letters to represent the person that we knew for 25 years so that the judge could take that into full consideration, relative to the sentencing,” Kutcher explained in the video.
“[The letters] were intended for the judge to read and not to undermine the testimony of the victims or re-traumatize them in any way,” he said. “We would never want to do that. And we’re sorry if that has taken place.”