Topher Grace’s wife Ashley Hinshaw shares a message in support of rape survivors following news that Danny Masterson has been sentenced to 30 years in prison on two counts of rape.
Hinshaw, 34, took to her Instagram Story on Friday to share a photo of a tree against the sky.
“To every rape victim who is being re-traumatized by witnessing the debate in society and focusing their attention on what will happen to the RAPIST… I see you,” Hinshaw captioned the photo.
Although Hinshaw did not specify that she was referring to the Masterson case, her statements came shortly after news broke that Grace’s former 70’s show colleagues, including Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp, wrote individual pleas to the judge for leniency during his sentencing. Additional letters of support came from Masterson’s brother-in-law, Billy Baldwin, and actor Giovanni Ribisi.
The backlash against Kutcher and Kunis for writing letters was significant, especially because of the couple’s well-known advocacy on behalf of victims of sex crimes. (Kutcher, along with his former wife Demi Moore, is the co-founder of an anti-sex trafficking nonprofit called Thorn, while Kunis produced and starred in Netflix’s Happiest girl in the world, the 2022 thriller in which she plays a rape survivor.)
Following the swift response on Saturday, Kutcher shared a video of himself and Kunis on his Instagram account, in which they “recognized the pain caused by the character letters we wrote on behalf of Danny Masterson.” Kutcher noted that they wrote the letters a “few months ago” at the request of Masterson’s family, who had asked them to “write character letters to represent the person we had known for 25 years so that the judge would take full account of that.” could hold with regard to the conviction.”
Despite their support for Masterson, the couple made clear that their letters were not intended to undermine the conviction or retraumatize the victims. “We would never want to do that. And we are sorry if that occurred,” Kutcher said.
“The letters were not written to question the legitimacy of the legal system or the validity of the jury’s verdict,” Kunis noted. “We support victims. We have done this historically through our work and will continue to do so in the future.”
Grace did not write a letter in support of Masterson. In 2018, Grace told the Hollywood reporter that he did not want to come across as defending Masterson’s actions, and that he had no idea of the things he was accused of during their time together on screen.
“You know, I hesitate to say that I never saw any of that behavior because I feel like it sounds like I’m defending him, but the truth is I never saw any of that stuff,” Grace shared .
He went on to say that he was still in touch with some of his co-stars, and that his time on the beloved Fox sitcom was very special.
“We were all really close and had that experience with each other every day. It was great to air it once a week, but I’m still good friends with those guys,” Grace continued. However, he noted that there was a certain rift between them. “I was the most boring of that cast. So when it came to going out after the show and partying, I was just boring.
Grace returned to reprise his role as Eric Forman That 90s show in January, alongside Kunis, Kutcher, Rupp and Smith. Masterson did not return to the show.
