It’s not a good time to have friends in high places. Given that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has recently been indicted on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution, and faces multiple allegations of sexual assault and abuse, it’s no doubt a troubling time for those associated with him.

Not least those who have had public friendships with Combs over the years, or who attended his infamous white parties, where some of the alleged crimes are said to have taken place.

One such person is Ashton Kutcher. The pair met in the early 2000s when Kutcher planned to feature Combs on the MTV series Punk’d and the rapper was starring on another MTV show, Making the Band. They quickly became close, with Kutcher even describing them as ‘best friends’, saying they used to ‘hang out’ and ‘watch football’.

At the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, Kutcher and Combs joked about ‘hot chicks’ while presenting the Best Villain award to Daveigh Chase, who played Samara Morgan in The Ring. The actress was 13 years old at the time. Combs proceeded to invite her to an after party on camera.

Kutcher’s partying days reportedly started to dwindle when he married Demi Moore in 2005. Speaking to James Corden about his friendship with Combs in the early noughties on The Late Late Show in 2018 he said, ‘If you’re a single man, there’s probably no greater human being in the world than him. We were having a lot of fun together.’

A year later when he appeared on the YouTube series Hot Ones and the host Sean Evans probed Kutcher for ‘wild stories’ from his days spent at Combs’ industry parties. The actor said, ‘I’ve got a lot I can’t tell,’ before smiling and adding, ‘Can’t tell that one either… I’m cycling through them.’

While Kutcher is not involved in the upcoming court case and has not been accused of any crimes, his friendship with Combs is back on people’s radars, with countless photos and quotes from that period resurfacing.

Unsurprisingly, TikTok sleuths are jumping to conclusions and looking for more information about their friendship. Some have even gone as far as to speculate wildly that Kutcher and his wife Mila Kunis could be getting divorced over it.

However, a source has told People these rumours are ‘absolutely ridiculous and false’ and said Kutcher ‘doesn’t belong in this conversation about Diddy. Ashton has only seen Diddy in a handful of social and business events, all of which have been documented by the media’.

Combs is currently awaiting trial in the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn – where Ghislaine Maxwell and R. Kelly are currently inmates – and has twice been denied bail. A date has not yet been set for his trial. According to former prosecutor Neama Rahmani, his celebrity inner circle could face potential subpoenas during the trial, but it’s not currently known who that would involve.

The music mogul’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo, has said Combs plans to plead not guilty to all federal charges and denies all allegations. He said, ‘Mr Combs is a fighter – he will fight this until the end. He is innocent.’

If he is found guilty, Combs could be sentenced to life imprisonment.