Macaulay Culkin rose to stardom with his role in the unforgettable family movie "Home Alone." But what started as a promising career turned into a perilous life journey filled with heartbreak, tragedy, and redemption. He had a difficult upbringing, and as a young adult decided to leave acting to recover. But his career was far from over.
Culkin remains a household name even to this day with memorable performances in independent cinema, and recreations of beloved characters in commercials. His tumultuous relationships have hopefully led him on the road to ultimate happiness, and the future looks bright for the former child star. Here's the tragic real-life story of Macaulay Culkin.
Culkin remains a household name even to this day with memorable performances in independent cinema, and recreations of beloved characters in commercials. His tumultuous relationships have hopefully led him on the road to ultimate happiness, and the future looks bright for the former child star. Here's the tragic real-life story of Macaulay Culkin.
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00:00Macaulay Culkin's adult life has been as unconventional as his childhood was busy.
00:04But did you know it hasn't all been smooth sailing for the former child star? From tragic
00:08losses, repeated heartbreaks, and vicious rumors, keep watching to learn the tragic
00:13life story of Macaulay Culkin. Macaulay Culkin and his six siblings grew up in a cramped New
00:18York City apartment, with all seven kids sharing bunk beds in one room. Culkin told New York
00:23Magazine the apartment resembled a long hallway and didn't even have doors. According to The
00:27Hollywood Reporter, Culkin's mom, Patricia Brentrup, answered telephones for a casting agency,
00:32while his father, Kit, worked at a Catholic church so his children could attend school there.
00:36Billy Hopkins, the New York casting director who gave Macaulay his first part,
00:39confirmed that the Culkin family struggled financially. In an interview with New York
00:43Magazine, he shared,
00:44"[Macaulay would crawl under the bleachers at the theater to look for change that had
00:47fallen out of people's pockets."
00:49Hopkins added he would pay out of his own pocket to get Macaulay back and forth from rehearsals.
00:53Macaulay's dad, a child actor himself, saw an opportunity to capitalize on his kids,
00:57and became their full-time manager, according to The Telegraph. Macaulay told Joe Rogan he
01:01didn't really have a say about his own career, explaining that his parents would select his
01:05roles for him. Kit Culkin worked his child star son hard, but Macaulay's problems with his father
01:10went much deeper than that. He told Marc Maron's WTF! podcast his dad was emotionally and physically
01:16abusive, and claimed he even had the scars to prove it. Kit, The Telegraph reports,
01:20had a reputation as a manipulative manager in Hollywood, and it seems he was the same
01:24way with his son. Macaulay wasn't the only target of Kit's wrath. Patricia claimed he
01:28was often drunk and punched her repeatedly while she was pregnant. One time, she told The Telegraph,
01:32he even threatened to throw her off their balcony. She filed for sole custody of the children,
01:36and in 1997, she won. According to UPI, Macaulay has been estranged from his father ever since,
01:42and claims Kit Culkin never felt like a real dad to him in the first place.
01:45My concept of a father, almost, is one of those things that you get from TV shows and movies."
01:51Macaulay Culkin's younger brother, Kieran, grew up on movie sets,
01:54but never matched his brother's level of stardom. In turn, he didn't experience the level of
01:58harassment Macaulay did as a child. People would go after him on the street, and one woman even
02:03forcibly removed his hat to get a better look at his face.
02:06"...exactly a nice thing that happened to him at the age of nine. It wasn't nice for him to,
02:11like, walk down the street and people, like, chase him and stuff."
02:14Macaulay's hassles didn't stop as he grew older. In an interview with Esquire,
02:18he admitted that he enjoyed the attention as a kid. Now fully grown,
02:21Culkin told The Guardian that he consciously tries to avoid attention from fans and the press.
02:25He managed to avoid much of the harassment while living in Paris,
02:28but said that the flashing cameras in his face never stopped.
02:30To this day, Culkin still lives with the threat of encountering the paparazzi
02:34just walking down the street. As the publicity has been a large part of his entire life,
02:38he lives in a constant state of vigilance. In the same Guardian interview, he said,
02:42"...you take on a prey-like attitude, always scanning the horizon."
02:45Macaulay Culkin followed up on his Home Alone momentum with successful performances in 1991's
02:50My Girl and the 1992 sequel Home Alone 2 Lost in New York. By all accounts,
02:541994 should have been a great year for the teenage star, but it ended up being quite
02:58the opposite. Getting even with Dad was a big disappointment at the box office.
03:02It wasn't just producers who were unamused by the comedy's performance. Critics were
03:06lining up to give it the old thumbs-down. As Culkin got older, critiques for his work
03:10got more harsh. Leslie Thornton of The Independent summed his reception up well, saying,
03:14"...Macaulay Culkin is getting on a bit for a child star, but shows no sign of turning into
03:18a young actor and getting even with Dad."
03:20Unfortunately, Richie Rich didn't fare much better,
03:22and the reviews weren't kind to its titular star. Cinema Crazed observed that Culkin seemed
03:27bored throughout the film, and other writers were even more scathing. According to Celebrity Net
03:31Worth, Culkin made $16 million from getting even with Dad and Richie Rich alone. The question was,
03:36did he have a future as an actor moving forward?
03:39Looking back on his childhood, Macaulay Culkin told New York Magazine he remembered one day
03:43telling his father he wanted to work less.
03:45I, like, I never chose the projects. They were, like, my parents,
03:50like, you know, essentially, like, chose them for me."
03:52In response, his father said,
03:54"...yeah, sure," but proceeded to continue signing his son up for projects. That's when
03:57Culkin realized he had to take his career into his own hands. In 1994, Culkin quit acting at
04:02the age of 14. In a 2004 interview with Spin, he explained that he told everyone in his circle he
04:07was cutting them off financially. On the early show, Culkin said,
04:10"...I was so tired. I had wanted a break for a long time, and no one was listening.
04:14When I was in a position where I could walk away, I just did."
04:17In a 2001 interview with Time, Culkin explained that he wanted to disappear from the public eye
04:22as drastically as he possibly could. Culkin also recalled wanting a more normal childhood,
04:27and begging his dad to let him go back to school. According to Esquire, he hadn't completed a full
04:31year of school since the first grade. This request, like many others, fell on deaf ears.
04:36Culkin decided he would start a new chapter of his life and just be a normal kid in high school.
04:40On the first day of school, Macaulay Culkin met Guiding Light actor Rachel Miner. He told
04:44New York Magazine that Miner always perceived him as a jerk. Apparently, their first few encounters
04:49weren't especially warm. However, that didn't stop the pair from beginning an on-again-off-again
04:53relationship, and eventually marrying in 1998. They were both only 17 years old.
04:58"...child stars, they probably age in a way like dog years,
05:01and they're 17 is maybe like you're 25 or 35."
05:05Culkin reports that Miner had broken up with him three times before they married. The last
05:09time they were together, Culkin outright told her,
05:11"'Marry me now before you dump me again.'"
05:13According to ABC News, the couple announced they were separating after two years of marriage.
05:18Culkin admitted that his reclusive nature may have hurt the relationship.
05:21The marriage ended in divorce in 2002. In an interview with Spin a few years later,
05:25Culkin would joke that he only had three options as a young star — go broke,
05:29battle with drug addiction, or marry young. It seems he fell victim to the final choice.
05:33In 1998, four people died and many more were injured in a fire that started in
05:38the Culkin family's apartment. According to The New York Times, the fatalities occurred
05:41as a result of the superheated, smoke-filled stairwell as residents of the building tried
05:45to escape the fire. According to the FDNY report, Patricia Bentrop called to report
05:50that her electric heater caught fire and spread to the couch. She woke the Culkin
05:53kids and quickly whisked them out of the apartment. Bentrop told the New York Post
05:56that in her rush to save her children, she neglected to shut the door. The open door,
06:00according to the report, is what caused the stairwell to fill up with smoke.
06:04McCauley, who was not living in the apartment when it happened,
06:06told New York Magazine he got the news quickly via some family friends. Culkin
06:10said that early reports of the fire weren't especially accurate, and some even made it
06:14seem like he was the one to start the fire. Thankfully, his family all made it out safely,
06:18though he still reflects on what an awful tragedy occurred at his childhood home.
06:22In 2008, McCauley's sister Dakota Culkin was hit by a car after she stepped onto a
06:27street in Los Angeles. She died later from massive head trauma, according to TMZ. Kieran
06:31told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021,
06:33"[Dakota was extremely funny and deeply loved by her family.] After her death,
06:37Kieran reflected,
06:38"'Each one of us handled her death very differently. I think everyone was just torn up inside.'"
06:43McCauley told Esquire about the last conversation he had with the sister. The night she died,
06:47she called McCauley to let him know she had watched one of his films and enjoyed it. He
06:51thanked her and told her to go to sleep. Culkin reports that she then went out to purchase
06:54something and was hit by a car. Dakota's friend, Andrea Poe, told People the former production
06:59assistant moved to Los Angeles to work in the film industry. Reportedly, she was very proud
07:03of her family and regularly spoke to McCauley. Poe also assured that Dakota was very humble
07:08about sharing the Culkin name.
07:10McCauley, Culkin, and Mila Kunis seemed like the perfect couple when they first linked up in 2002.
07:15The Black Swan star told Women's Health that Culkin had been a longtime friend growing up.
07:18In an interview with Howard Stern, Kunis explained that she didn't like the ways fans
07:22interacted with him.
07:23It wasn't like a normal response to a celebrity. The fans responded in a very abnormal way to him."
07:30In 2011, after Culkin and Kunis had been together eight years,
07:34Kunis announced the celebrity couple's separation. She described the breakup as
07:37amicable to Page Six, but later revealed there was much more to the story. In 2018,
07:42the That 70s Show star told Dax Shepard on Armtra Expert,
07:44the breakup was horrible and her fault. She went on to explain that she wasn't
07:48happy with her actions in the relationship and regretted how she ended it.
07:51Maybe the third time will be a charm for Culkin,
07:53who doesn't have the best track record when it comes to relationships. In January 2022,
07:58he announced his engagement to Disney Channel actress Brenda Song. In 2021,
08:01the couple welcomed their son Dakota Song, named after Culkin's late sister.
08:05In a statement obtained by Esquire, the couple said,
08:07"'We're overjoyed.'"
08:09On August 1, 2012, the National Enquirer's cover story read McCauley-Culkin addicted to heroin,
08:14only six months to live. Of course, he outlived the prediction of his impending death.
08:18Culkin's rep fired back, telling E! the story had no facts to back it up. In response,
08:23the National Enquirer doubled down, refusing to retract the statement. In fact,
08:26they added fuel to the fire by labeling their efforts as a dramatic and much-needed
08:30wake-up call to the 31-year-old actor. Culkin responded in turn to The Guardian a few years
08:34later, vehemently denying the rumors and frustrated that the tabloids were trying
08:38to wrap the headline up with a strange guise of concern. In his 2020 interview with Esquire,
08:43he got a little more candid on the topic of drug abuse. Culkin stated that,
08:46while he doesn't do recreational drugs, he had experimented in the past and believes
08:50that substances played a role in developing his personality. Back in 2005, Culkin pleaded
08:55guilty to misdemeanor charges for possession of medication without a prescription and cannabis.
08:59He was given a one-year deferred sentence, according to Today. This came after his arrest
09:03in Oklahoma City, where officers found over a half-ounce of weed and several Xanax tablets.
09:08McCauley-Culkin started the parody band The Pizza Underground in 2012. The group is a
09:13tribute to the Velvet Underground that only sings about pizza. Its lineup features Culkin
09:17on vocals and kazoo. What could go wrong? Apparently, a lot. According to the Nottingham Post,
09:2215 minutes into a Pizza Underground show in England, the band was booed off the stage and
09:26pelted with beer. While the audience threw their drinks, Culkin joked that he would have preferred
09:30just to drink them. One audience member took to the group's Facebook page to rub salt into the
09:34wound. He wrote that he was happy to hit the band with his drink and objected to the group's mockery
09:38of a very influential music group. Others tweeted apologies for their neighbor's behavior. Culkin
09:42told The Guardian,
09:43"...it's one of those good ideas you have when you're drunk, and you wake up and forget about
09:47it. But we're taking it to the end of the joke." In his 2018 interview with Marc Maron, Culkin
09:51decided the joke had come full circle, and The Pizza Underground was officially six feet under.
09:56That news, we suspect, was music to the ears of some listeners across the pond.
10:00If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse,
10:03please contact the ChildHelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD,
10:08that's 1-800-422-4453. Or contact their live chat services.