Ashton Kutcher praised his wife Mila Kunis for "kicking his ass" every day.

Ashton Kutcher

Ashton Kutcher

The former 'That '70s Show' actor paid tribute to his spouse and their children, Wyatt, two, and Dimitri, four months, as he picked up the Robert D. Ray Pillar of Character Award at the Ron Pearson Center in West Des Moines in his home state of Iowa on Saturday (08.04.17) and spoke of his positive outlook on life.

He said: "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you learn from the mistakes that you make and how you perceive the world that's coming at you.

"Because life doesn't happen to you, it happens for you. Every single time. And as long as you have love and kindness and optimism and a pursuit of something greater in your heart, you're the lucky one. So this award is for you. It is for my family, it's for all four of my parents, it's for my wife, who kicks my ass on character every day.

"I'm telling you, this morning, I woke up and she kicked my ass on character.

"I thought I was awesome because I got up early and helped with the kids before she woke up and I let her sleep a little bit and then she's like, 'Well, now you're gonna act tired? I do it every day.' But it was a character moment, right? Because she's right!"

The 39-year-old actor admitted being a parent has been the "greatest lesson in character" of his life and thinks having children is an "amazing honour".

He said: "When I had these kids, my wife and I had these kids and we got to share that amazing, amazing, amazing honour, my first response was, I wanted to call my parents and say, 'I'm sorry, because I never knew how much you loved me."

Ashton - who was previously married to Demi Moore - had begun his speech by joking he was probably the first person "who had a deferred judgment for a felony burglary for trying to break into his high school" at age 18, got "pulled over by a state trooper while tripping on mushrooms," and had his "name splashed across every gossip magazine as an adulterer, like, five years ago."

And paying tribute to his twin brother Michael, who has cerebral palsy and had a heart transplant as a youngster, Ashton said: "Character hides and it comes out when you get smacked in the mouth.

"It comes out when you're walking your brother home from school and some kid hits you in the back of the head because he wants to fight with your brother and you say 'no' ... That's when character comes out."

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