Ashton Kutcher is looking back at the 2021 bathing debate that caused quite the stink.
In July 2021, the Beauty actor and wife Mila Kunis sparked enormous discussion in Hollywood and online when they spoke about their hygiene habits on the “Armchair Expert” podcast hosted by Dax Shepard.
“I don’t wash my body with soap every day. But I wash pits and tits and holes and soles,” Kunis, 42, said, also admitting that she and Kutcher don’t bathe their children — daughter Wyatt, 11, and son Dimitri, 9 — every day.
Kutcher, 47, weighed in too, telling Shepard and cohost Monica Padman, “I wash my armpits and my crotch daily, and nothing else ever. I got a bar of Lever 2000 that just delivers every time. Nothing else.”
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The couple’s confessions prompted celebrities including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Cardi B to comment on the great bathing debate of 2021, which, looking back, Kutcher now feels was overblown.
“It was the craziest thing of all time. We made a comment at one point, and people were like, ‘Does he stink? Does he smell?’” the actor said in a joint People interview with Beauty costars Anthony Ramos and Jeremy Pope published on Monday, January 19.
According to People, Kutcher then turned to his Beauty castmates to explain the five-year-old debate.
He said, “There was a comment on a podcast, so long ago … and people are like, ‘They don’t shower.’ I’m like, ‘I shower, I go to the gym, I shower.’”
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Hamilton alum Ramos backed Kutcher up, telling the outlet, “I can confirm my boy showers.”
During their 2021 appearance on the “Armchair Expert” podcast, Kutcher, Kunis and Shepard set off a chain reaction with their bathing routines. The discussion came up when Shepard filled the That ‘70s Show alums in on his ongoing dispute with cohost Padman, arguing that she shouldn’t be washing her body with soap every day.
“You should not be getting rid of all the natural oil on your skin with a bar of soap every day. It’s insane,” Shepard reasoned.
Padman responded, “I can’t believe I’m in the minority here of washing my whole body in the shower. Who taught you to not wash?”
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Kunis then chimed in, “I didn’t have hot water growing up as a child, so I didn’t shower very much anyway.”
The Black Swan actress added, “When I had children, I also didn’t wash them every day. I wasn’t that parent that bathed my newborns — ever.”
“Now, here’s the thing: If you can see the dirt on them, clean them. Otherwise, there’s no point,” Kutcher shared his philosophy on bathing his children.
A few weeks, Shepard and wife Kristen Bell also made headlines when they revealed on The View that they have a similar perspective.
“I’m a big fan of waiting for the stink. Once you catch a whiff, that’s biology’s way of letting you know you need to clean it up,” Bell said. “There’s a red flag. Because honestly, it’s just bacteria. And once you get the bacteria, you gotta be like, ‘Get in the tub or the shower.’ So I don’t hate what they’re doing. I wait for the stink.”
