Macaulay Culkin and his long-term love Brenda Song are one of the most casually adorable star couples around — married or not.
In a joint interview for Cosmopolitan’s Love Issue, Culkin joked, “Do you not want to marry me?” as the pair discussed their wedding plans — or lack of!
Culkin, 44, and Song, 36, have been together for almost a decade and share two young sons, Dakota, 4, and Carson, 3. But juggling young kids alongside their careers means that planning a wedding has slipped way down the priority list. “We talked about eloping,” said Song. “But I was like, ‘If we eloped, my mom would have a heart attack that she wasn’t going to be there …’” Culkin added: “I wouldn’t even!”
Despite not yet committing to a wedding date, the two former child stars (Song rose to fame via Disney’s The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, while Culkin is best-known for huge movies like Home Alone) are deadly serious about each other — even though, when they first met in 2014, they clashed.
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Recalling that they were introduced by mutual friend and colleague Seth Green, Song said she wasn’t amused when Culkin made jokes about Dads, her ill-fated Fox sitcom with Green. “He was trying to be funny about our show being canceled and I was not having it,” she said. Culkin added: “She was thoroughly unimpressed by me is what I will say.”
Thankfully, things went a lot better when Green got them together again to shoot 2017 indie movie Changeland. They even discovered they both liked the same baby name, Dakota — the name of Culkin’s late sister who tragically died in a car accident in 2008 at the age of 30.
“I saw this person he put out there — it was a product of this armor that he’s put on to protect himself,” said Song. “But I could see that that wasn’t really who he was; I could see these glimpses of this really interesting, very sensitive, very intelligent, artistic person that he doesn’t really let show.” She added: “We were both very hurt in past relationships and kept expectations low.”
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Soon, though, they were dating seriously, meeting each other’s families and making plans for the future — before Culkin proposed via 21 individually wrapped garden gnomes. “I’d never felt this way before,” said Culkin. “I believed in her. I mean, I believed in people before, but I believed in her down to my bone marrow. You know what I mean? I put it behind the armor though, behind that shield.”
Song added: “When I met Mack, there was so much more of me that I hadn’t figured out. He made me such a bigger person and I was like, Oh my god. I didn’t realize that there were so many things I didn’t know about myself.”
The adorable Cosmo interview is not the first time the pair have publicly declared their love for each other. In December 2023, when Culkin was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he also shared his appreciation for his fiancée. “You’re my champion,” he said. “The only person happier for me today than I am. You’re not only the best woman I’ve ever known, you’re the best person I’ve ever known. You’ve given me all my purpose. You’ve given me family.”
