This weekend, Ashton Kutcher received the Robert D. Ray Pillar of Character Award at the Ron Pearson Center in West Des Moines, Iowa.

It’s pretty well deserved, seeing as he is a man of character — but he wasn’t always like that, according to him.

“I’m also probably the first person to get this award for character who had, like, his name splashed across every gossip magazine as an adulterer like five years ago,” the 39-year old actor referred to his infamous divorce from Demi Moore in 2013. “Character comes when those magazines tear you apart for something you may or may not have done and you gotta go out and perform tomorrow — with everyone looking at you like you might be an adulterer.”

Pictured: Ashton and Demi, Credit: FameFlynet, Inc 

Ashton and Demi got married in 2005 and divorced six years later. Now, he’s married to That 70’s Show alum Milo Kunis, with whom he shares 2-year old Wyatt and 4-month-old son Dimitri.

He also credits Mila for making him a man of character, saying that she “kicks my ass on character every day.”

“When my wife and I had these kids and we got to share that amazing, amazing, amazing honor, my first response was, I wanted to call my parents and say, ‘I’m sorry, because I never knew how much you loved me,’” he said.