Sad Details About Macaulay Culkin's Relationship With His Dad

At just 10 years old, Macaulay Culkin became a household name thanks to his iconic role in "Home Alone." Some of Macaulay's siblings have become prominent actors as well — namely, younger brother Kieran Culkin and youngest brother Rory Culkin. However, the truth about the Culkin boys is that, for all their fame, their upbringing was anything but easy. Macaulay, in particular, has spoken candidly about his estranged relationship with his father, Christopher "Kit" Culkin, describing him as an abusive man who pushed him to pursue acting in the first place. That in mind, it's no wonder why Macaulay decided to step away from the profession for a time.

"[He said], 'Do good, or I'll hit you.' He was a bad man," Macaulay said of Kit during an early-2018 appearance on Marc Maron's "WTF" podcast, adding, "He was abusive, physically and mentally — I can show you all my scars if I wanted to." Kit, a former stage actor, was also allegedly jealous of Macaulay's success. "Everything he tried to do in life, I excelled at before I was 10 years old," Macaulay explained. That said, while speaking to Esquire in 2020, the "Fallout" star clarified that, contrary to popular belief, he never emancipated himself from his parents. Rather, he simply had their names removed from his trust fund amid their custody battle. Apparently, it wasn't until the legal proceedings began that Macaulay learned how much money he had actually made as an actor, as his father (who was also his manager) had kept all that from him.

According to New York Magazine, Macaulay Culkin has not seen father Kit Culkin since the end of his parents' custody battle, when the former child star was 16 years old. Since then, both Macaulay and brother Kieran Culkin have become fathers themselves. Macaulay and partner Brenda Song share two sons, while Kieran and wife Jazz Charton have a daughter and a son. By all accounts, the Culkin brothers are dedicated to being much better dads to their own kids than Kit was to them. "Happy Father's Day to this DADDY. Considering he didn't grow up with a good example of what a dad is he's really quite good at it," Charton said of Kieran in a 2024 Instagram post.

Still, there's no denying that the tragic story of Macaulay Culkin is multigenerational. During an appearance on Kate and Oliver Hudson's "Sibling Revelry" podcast in March 2025, Macaulay made it clear that he and his siblings aren't the only ones who have no place for Kit in their lives. "I haven't spoken to [my father] in, what would it be, about 30-something years? He deserves it, too. He's a man who — he has seven kids, and now he has four grandkids, and none of them want anything to do with him," the actor proclaimed. Macaulay added that he is also inclined to believe that Kit doesn't even recognize what he did wrong. "He's one of those narcissistic crazy people," he said.