Comedian Kathy Griffin has shared a harrowing story about her paedophile brother, following Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher’s controversial support for Danny Masterson.
Kutcher and Kunis were among several celebrities to have written letters of support for former That 70s Show co-star Masterson, 47, who was sentenced on 7 September to 30 years to life in prison for raping two women two decades ago.
Shortly after, it was revealed that Kutcher and Kunis, who are married, were among 50 people who “vouched” for Masterson’s “exceptional character”.
After their letters – pleading for Judge Charlaine Olmedo’s leniency – were made public by court reporter Meghann Cuniff on Friday, 9 September, the couple has been called out by Masterson’s accuser Chrissie Carnell Bixler, as well as the actor Christina Ricci, and now by Griffin, 67.
Sexual assault trigger warning: the following may contain information that some find distressing.
In a TikTok video posted on Sunday (10 September), Griffin “weighed in on the situation”, saying: “I don’t really care that when they were working on That ‘70s Show, he was like a good guy to work with.”
She went on to open up about her late brother Ken Griffin, who “was a paedophile”.
“I wrote about it in my first book, and it was a horrible horrible thing, and I tried to get him caught. Now this was my brother, so I don’t want to hear about Ashton and Mila and Giovanni Ribisi and people that feel that they had to stick up for Danny Masterson because he was their ‘bro’ he was their ‘buddy’ – this was my own brother,” the Straight to Hell comedian said.
“And two of his girlfriends confessed to me; he also physically abused them very violently. I called the [Los Angeles Police Department] about it twice because my brother was the super of a building, and that’s how he gained access to his victims.
“So he had keys to all of the units, and he allegedly – because he never went to prison for it, he went to prison for something else – molested a boy and a girl because most paedophiles don’t care about gender.”
Griffin went on to say that she had been “shunned” by her own family for trying to get her brother arrested.
“And when I called LAPD they actually said, ‘We can only go and even do a door knock, like ask one of the victims about this, if your brother personally walks into the station and confesses or if one of the kids confesses and goes to authorities’,” she continued.
“And both times, I said, ‘You think a 10-year-old is going to walk into the precinct on Bronson or whatever and ask for help?’ It doesn’t work that way in this crime. And so nothing happened.”
Griffin went on to describe the difficulty in securing a conviction during a rape trial, describing the process as “almost impossible”.
“Most prosecutors – well, all prosecutors – will not even bring the case to trial unless there’s an incredible amount of evidence because it turns into a ‘he said, she said’ and historically, juries are very trepidatious, to say the least, of convicting a guy about SA [sexual assault] because there’s still a lot of stigma about whether the woman asked for it, etc,” Griffin added.
“So it’s always haunted me that I could never do anything about it, and I think about those children every day, and I think about other victims he probably had and the difficulty in getting a conviction in SA cases. The bar is so high that I tend to absolutely believe the victims when there’s even a trial because it’s so hard to even get to a trial.”
She concluded: “And I could never do anything about my brother, and I felt so helpless. And the women that he was with at the time were so physically abused, they were in that place and I don’t blame them 100 per cent, but the point is: blood was not thicker than water in my case. And if you know that somebody is committing SA, you should do something if you can. My god at least try.”
After being criticised for sending the character letters, Kutcher and Kunis addressed the controversy in a video posted on Saturday 8 September.
“We are aware of the pain that has been caused by the character letters that we wrote on behalf of Danny Masterson,” Kutcher said in the clip, which was posted on their social media accounts.
Kunis added: “We support victims. We have done this historically through our work and will continue to do so in the future.”
Kutcher explained that Masterson’s family had contacted his former co-stars about writing the character letters to “represent the person that we knew for 25 years”, with Kunis stating: “The letters were not written to question the legitimacy of the judicial system, or the validity of the jury’s ruling.”
The actors continued: “They were intended for the judge to read and not to undermine the testimony of the victims or re-traumatise them in any way. We would never want to do that, and we’re sorry if that has taken place.”
Kunis said that their “hearts go out to every single person who’s ever been a victim of sexual assault, sexual abuse or rape”.
If you have been raped or sexually assaulted, you can contact your nearest Rape Crisis organisation for specialist, independent and confidential support. For more information, visit their website here.
