'An Infamous Monster': Macaulay Culkin Rips Estranged Dad Kit While Honoring John Candy and Praising the Comedy Legend as a 'Real Father Figure'
Macaulay Culkin said John Candy was like a father to him.
Sept. 5 2025, Published 5:30 p.m. ET
Macaulay Culkin has opened up once again about his traumatic childhood, RadarOnline.com can report, slamming his allegedly abusive father and calling him an "infamous monster."
The former child star has not seen his dad in more than 30 years and has no desire to reunite anytime soon.
Culkin has been estranged from his abusive dad, Kit, for decades.
Culkin has discussed his painful upbringing in the past. The Home Alone star previously claimed his father, Kit, treated him badly because the patriarch was jealous of his success as an actor.
Kit reportedly never allowed his hardworking sons a break – and earned a reputation as a Hollywood bully who tried to wrestle creative control of their movies from studio executives.
And Culkin, now 45, has never forgiven him for his pain. His latest salvo against his dad came in the new film about someone who actually was a father figure to him – John Candy.
John Candy Was A Father Figure
The former child star said Candy watched over him on films like 'Uncle Buck'.
Candy, who tragically died at age 43 after suffering a heart attack in 1994, worked with the young star on three movies – Uncle Buck, Home Alone, and Only the Lonely.
In the new documentary John Candy: I Like Me, Culkin acknowledged that Candy took special care of him when his father wouldn't.
"I think he saw," Culkin says, "Listen, even before the wave crested and the Home Alone stuff was happening, it was not hard to see how difficult my father was. It was no secret. He was already a monster."
He continued: "All of a sudden, the fame and the money came, and he became an infamous monster. He was already not a good guy. I think John was looking a little side-eyed, like, 'Is everything alright over there? You doing good? Good day? Everything's alright? Everything good at home? Alright.'"
Culkin said Candy's kindness helped him during his darkest hours: "I wish I got more of that in my life. It's important that I remember that. I remember John caring when not a lot of people did."
Jealousy and Rage
Culkin claimed his father would physically abuse him.
Culkin has previously revealed his father couldn't get past his jealousy and would often take it out physically on him.
In an appearance on Oliver and Kate Hudson's Sibling Revelry podcast, the My Girl star explained: "I would take his whoopings and stuff like that. But the whole time I was sitting there thinking, 'Oh, I’m gonna win in the end.'"
He went on to call Kit "narcissistic" and "abusive," and said: "I wanted nothing to do with my f------ father. Like, he was just the worst."
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He has promised not to act the same way around his own kids.
Culkin has since gone on to start a family of his own, welcoming sons Dakota, 4, and Carson, 2, with fiancée Brenda Song. But a family reunion remains a slim possibility.
"I haven’t spoken to him in, what would it be, about thirty-something years?" he said on the podcast. "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."
After taking a few moments to reflect, he said: "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.'"
