Macaulay Culkin‘s estranged father, Kit Culkin, taught him what not to do as a father.
During the Monday, March 31, episode of Kate and Oliver Hudson’s “Sibling Revelry” podcast, Macaulay, 44, discussed what lessons he learned from his childhood, saying, “It’s one of my earliest memories of him was [thinking], ‘When I grew up, this is how I’m not gonna be with my kids.’“
Macaulay, who shares sons Dakota, 4, and Carson, 2, with his fiancée, Brenda Song, didn’t want to follow in his dad’s footsteps when he expanded his family.
“Now that I have kids of my own, it kicks up some dust,” he explained. “I kinda go, ‘I can’t believe he was like that. He had all these lovely kids.’ It’s crazy…. . He’s a man who had seven kids, and now he has four grandkids. And, none of them want anything to do with him.”
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Macaulay speculated that his father Kit, 80, doesn’t blame himself for the distance between him and his loved ones, adding, “I have more than an inkling that he does not feel that way.” While addressing their estrangement over the last three decades, Macaulay referred to his dad as “narcissistic” and “abusive.”
The Culkin family has been in Hollywood ever since Macaulay scored his breakout role as Kevin McCallister in Home Alone. Macaulay’s siblings — including Kieran Culkin, Rory Culkin, Quinn Culkin and Christian Culkin — played younger versions of each other’s characters in various movies on the road to their personal successes.
Macaulay ended up suing his mother, Patricia Brentrup, and father at age 15 to remove them as his legal guardians. He chose to hire an executor for his finances — his family’s accountant — until he turned 18.
On Monday, Macaulay spoke about the custody battle between his parents, saying, “I wanted nothing to do with my f****ing father. Like, he was just the worst.” Macaulay didn’t even want visits with his father at the time.
“I told my lawyer, I said, ‘Yeah, I’m not doing that.’ He said, ‘Well, you know, you’ll be in contempt of court and this and that,’” the actor recalled. “I go, ‘OK. Well, how about this? I dare the judge to put me in jail for not wanting to visit [my] abusive father. I actually I’m gonna double down on that. I double dare him to arrest the most famous kid in the world.”
Macaulay’s brother Kieran, 42, has also hinted at a rocky relationship with their father. During the 2024 Emmy Awards, Kieran took a dig at Kit, telling reporters, “[My mom is] just an absolutely wonderful woman who took on raising seven kids in a studio apartment by herself. There was a guy there — he didn’t do anything.”
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In court documents from the custody battle, Kit denied abuse allegations. His late partner, Jeanette Krylowski, previously denied the claims from Macaulay and Kieran.
“My analysis is [that their mom] was the only one not getting famous and she felt left behind,” Krylowski told New York Magazine in 2001. “The kids do what Mom tells them to, because through the years, Mom had said, ‘Your father doesn’t love you, your father doesn’t love you.’”
On Monday’s podcast episode, Macaulay offered an update on how he’s now “in a really great place” and isn’t ruling out having more kids.
“I feel really good. I’m probably in the best place of my entire life,” he shared. “Oh, we’ll see about [having more kids]. We always take the can down the road, you know, and so we should talk about it next year. Obviously, right now, we’re actually in a spot where we actually have some really great stability. Both kids are in preschool right now. And we have a good routine. Brenda is really starting to feel like herself again.”
