Culkin Brothers Vow Not to Repeat Their Tortured Family's Mistakes After Macaulay Cut Ties With Dad
Kieran and Macaulay have cut their father out of their lives.
April 14 2025, Published 5:30 p.m. ET
Now fathers themselves, brothers Macaulay and Kieran Culkin parent by one shared philosophy – don't be like their dad.
The actors cut their abusive father out of their lives years ago and never looked back, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Macaulay shares two sons with fiancé Brenda Song.
Macaulay, 44, and Kieran, 42, have been estranged from dad Christopher 'Kit' Culkin for more than 30 years.
The Home Alone star previously revealed Kit treated him badly because the patriarch resented his success as an actor.
Sources claimed Kit never allowed his hardworking sons a break – and earned a rep as a Hollywood bully who tried to wrestle creative control of their movies from studio executives.
While Kieran has never shared any stories of abuse, he and Kit have no relationship. The A Real Pain Oscar winner previously told The Hollywood Reporter: "He wasn’t a good person and, yeah, probably not a good parent."
Despite his troubled upbringing, Kieran is a devoted dad to his daughter, Kinsey, five, and son Wilder, three, who he shares with wife Jazz Charton.
Kieran shares a daughter and son with wife Jazz Charton.
Macaulay has been a little less restrictive in his complaints, and recently told the Sibling Revelry with Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson podcast: "One of my earliest memories of him was thinking, 'when I grow up, this is how I'm not gonna be with my kids."
The My Girl star has two sons of his own now with fiancée Brenda Song. Dakota is almost four and Carson is two.
Macaulay revealed: "Now that I have kids of my own, it kicks up some dust. I kinda go, 'I can’t believe he was like that. He had all these lovely kids. It’s crazy.'"
Macaulay became a global star when he starred in 'Home Alone.'
But that doesn't mean there will be a family reunion anytime soon.
He emphasized: "Oh, he deserves it too. He’s a man who had seven kids, and now he has four grandkids. And, none of them want anything to do with him."
The former child star went on to call Kit "narcissistic" and "abusive," and said: "I wanted nothing to do with my f---ing father. Like, he was just the worst."
Before fame, Macaulay and his family lived together in a tiny apartment in New York City. According to his brother Kieran, their childhood home was "barely suitable for a couple," let alone for a family of nine.
Kieran described their place in his 2018 interview with Vanity Fair: "It was just a hallway, and there were no separating doors, except for the bathroom, which didn't have a lock. They raised seven kids in that apartment – for years. They just kept bringing babies home to this little space."
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After their parents divorce, the Culkin kids did not want to go with their father. Macaulay filed a legal request to erase Kit's name from his trust fund and appointed an executor to manage his finances.
He also refused to let his father visit him when he was still a minor.
Insiders say the hopes of reconciliation are thin: "People in Macaulay’s life say to him it would be nice to give Kit one more visit. But Macaulay won’t and says that chapter is closed."
They added: "He’s already said what he wanted to about his rotten childhood and how his dad tormented him and made him work nonstop until he cut away from both his parents. He says his dad is not a good person and he doesn’t want him anywhere near his kids!"
