The first sexual abuser Ashton Kutcher passionately defended way before Danny Masterson and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs came along

The last few years have not been the best of Ashton Kutcher‘s normally carefree life. First, he got dragged into the shame train that lashed out at him and his wife, actress Mila Kunis, for actively supporting convicted sexual abuser Danny Masterson, even after his victims had furnished enough evidence. Then came the arrest of Sean “Diddy” Combs and his “freak offs” and the long list of rumored celebs who may or may not have been in attendance.

Of course, Kutcher being Kutcher landed in trouble for supporting and vocally defending yet another sexual abuser long before he faced the heat for writing letters to the judge singing praise of Masterson’s apparently squeaky clean personality and claiming that despite being held guilty of raping two women his friend was not “an ongoing harm to society.” He and Kunis were bashed for their insensitivity towards the victims and for supporting a sexual abuser. The two apologized, but water was so not under the bridge as they remain subjects of criticism, pushing them to lay low.

Not that it helped since Diddy was arrested next.

As for Diddy, while Kutcher hasn’t come out in his support — it looks like someone learned that mistakes have consequences in this world now — he has been a big and rather vocal fan of the rapper’s parties. The actor’s Hot Wings appearance where he hesitated to talk about Diddy’s White parties and responded by saying he knows a lot about them that he can’t talk about hasn’t aged well since his former friend went behind bars.

Now, Kutcher did something akin to his Danny Masterson back in 2011, when celebrities could commit the biggest mistake and stir up a controversy and still walk away scott-free with a lame apology. At the time, head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions, Joe Paterno, was fired after it was discovered he had been protecting and intentionally hiding assistant coach Jerry Sandusky’s reign of sexual abuse of young boys across fifteen years.

“How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste,” Kutcher had written at the time. Did he say that knowingly, aware that he was not-so-indirectly supporting a sexual abuser Paterno was willingly shielding? At least that’s what the actor said when his tweet provoked an avalanche of hate and criticism for defending the coach. He swiftly deleted his original post, wrote “Heard Joe was fired, fully recant previous tweet!” claimed he didn’t have “full story,” proceeded to delete that as well before posting a more PR style apology. 

He added that he felt “awful about this error. Won’t happen again.” Well, as they say, history repeats itself.