What happened between Macaulay Culkin and his father?

Decades ago, behind the scenes of Macaulay Culkin’s meteoric rise to fame, a complex and troubled relationship with his father, Kit Culkin, was unfolding.

Macaulay Culkin’s journey to stardom began in childhood, with his father acting as his manager. The Culkin family, consisting of Kit, his partner Patricia Brentrup, and their seven children, lived in a cramped one-bedroom apartment in New York City before Macaulay’s success catapulted them into the limelight. As Macaulay’s career took off, the dynamics within the family began to shift, with Kit taking an increasingly controlling role in his son’s professional life.

As Macaulay aged, he began to speak out about his experiences growing up under his father’s management. In various interviews, the actor has described a childhood marred by alleged physical and emotional abuse. Macaulay has shared that his father was jealous of his early success, stating that he had achieved more by age ten than Kit had in his entire life. This perceived jealousy contributed to a tense and often hostile relationship between father and son, where the latter only cared about making more money even at the cost of his son (via New York Mag.

“I just said to Kit, ‘Listen, I’m really getting tired and I’m not at school as much as I’d like to be; I really need some time off.’ He said, ‘Yeah, sure,’ and the next thing I knew I was on the next set doing the next thing, and it just kind of clicked in my brain: Okay. There’s basically nothing I can do to make this stop.”

Macaulay Culkin’s road to independence 

The strain between Macaulay and Kit reached a breaking point in the mid-1990s. As Macaulay’s career began to wane following a string of less successful films, the relationship between father and son deteriorated further. In 1995, Macaulay’s parents separated, leading to a bitter custody battle that included control over the young actor’s substantial earnings. This legal dispute brought the family’s private struggles into the public eye, revealing the extent of the dysfunction within the Culkin household.

Following the custody battle, Macaulay distanced himself from his father. He removed his parents as his legal guardians and took control of his finances. In the years since, Macaulay has been open about his decision to estrange himself from Kit, stating that he has not spoken to his father in decades. The actor has described this separation as necessary for his well-being and personal growth.

In recent years, Macaulay Culkin has spoken about his efforts to heal from his troubled childhood and redefine his relationship with fatherhood. Now a father himself, Macaulay has expressed a desire to create a different kind of family environment for his children. He has been candid about his “complicated relationship” with Father’s Day, sharing on social media how he is working to reclaim the holiday and make it a celebration of his role as a parent rather than a reminder of his past.