Macaulay Culkin has spoken out to clear up the rumours he was sexually abused by Michael Jackson, claiming he never saw him do anything.

The former child actor, now 39, was friends with the late singer from a young age, but despite the allegations of sexual abuse and paedophilia made in the Leaving Neverland documentary, Macaulay says he was never a victim.

Macaulay told Esquire: ‘Look. I’m gonna begin with the line – it’s not a line, it’s the truth: He never did anything to me. I never saw him do anything. And especially at this flash point in time, I’d have no reason to hold anything back.

‘The guy has passed on. If anything – I’m not gonna say it would be stylish or anything like that, but right now is a good time to speak up.

‘And if I had something to speak up about, I would totally do it. But no, I never saw anything; he never did anything.’

Macaulay also shared another anecdote about his friendship with the star, revealing that he had bumped into James Franco on a plane after the documentary aired.

The pair shared small talk before James asked Macaulay how he felt about the documentary: ‘He goes, “So, that documentary!” And that was all he said. I was like, “Uh-huh.” Silence.

Michael Jackson and Macaulay Culkin

Macaulay has always defended his friendship with Michael Jackson (Picture: Rex Features)

‘So then he goes, “So what do you think?” And I turned to him and I go, “Do you wanna talk about your dead friend?” And he sheepishly went, “No, I don’t.” So I said, “Cool, man, it was nice to see you.”’

Macaulay has previously defended the 22-year age gap in his friendship with Michael, telling Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside Of You podcast last year: ‘He reached out to me because a lot of things were happening, big and fast with me and I think he identified with that.

Macaulay Culkin

The former child star says he never saw Michael behave inappropriately (Picture: Twitter/IncredibleCulk)
‘At the end of the day, it’s almost easy to say it was weird or whatever but it wasn’t because it made sense. At the end of the day, we were friends.

‘I was a peerless person. Nobody else in my Catholic school had even this much idea of what I was going through and he was the kind of person who’d been through the exact same frickin’ thing and wanted to make sure I wasn’t alone.’

He added: ‘For me, it’s so normal and mundane. I know it’s a big deal to everyone else, but to me it was a normal friendship.’