Macaulay Culkin is a figure that almost every child has engraved into their childhood memories due to the movie franchise Home Alone. The actor himself has been under the spotlight for almost all of his childhood and early adult years. Despite the many hardships he faced, he managed to get past them and build a happy life.

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Macaulay’s career didn’t start with Home Alone. Actually, the role of Kevin wasn’t even his first main role: the first main role he had was in Uncle Buck when he was only 8 years old.
His father used to be a Broadway actor but when his children were born, he stepped down. When Macaulay was a baby, his family was really poor.
The role of Kevin was almost given to a different boy. If he had gotten it, Kevin would have had dark hair (John Mulaney was asked to audition), and Macaulay’s life would have been much different. But thanks to his experience in Uncle Buck, Culkin was given the part.

© Home Alone / 20th Century Fox, © Uncle Buck / Universal Studios

The first Home Alone movie got Macaulay the Best Young Actor Starring in a Motion Picture award and he earned $110,000. Just to compare: for the sequel, he earned $4.5 million.
Of course, this wasn’t easy for Macaulay. He said that he just wanted to rest. In his parents’ apartment, he didn’t even have his own bed, let alone his own room.

Associated Press / East News

Culkin was one of the most famous children in the world — he was in the second position on the list of the 100 Greatest Kid Stars.
His father was really bossy. His mother stayed at home with the other kids and his father went to the shoots with Macaulay. He totally controlled the career of this young star. During the process, Macaulay says, his father wouldn’t let him sleep and made him practice his lines.

MGM / Courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection / East News

In 1994, Macaulay Culkin did his last film and then he stopped working in the movie industry. He was going to continue studying at school since, before, he had to stop studying because he was working. By that time, he had appeared in 15 movies in just 7 years — not even adult actors can handle this much work. And the movies released after Home Alone were really heavily criticized, especially The Good Son.

© Saved! / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, © Sex and Breakfast / Brandman Productions, © Adam Green’s Aladdin / Adam Green Productions

Soon after Macaulay stopped acting, his parents broke up and started suing each other over custody. He decided to take his parents’ names off his trust fund and find an executor that would make sure the 2 of them wouldn’t take any of his money.
Before coming of age, Macaulay didn’t even know how much money he had earned. His parents made sure he didn’t know all the details of his contracts. Macaulay says, “When I turned 18, I sat down in my accountant’s office, it was basically the day where he put down a piece of paper in front of me and said this is how much you’re worth. It was interesting because it was one of these moments where it was like, I felt like this little boy had worked really hard and I inherited all of his money. I felt like I inherited this money in some odd way.”

Macaulay first married in 1998. He and his wife were 18 years old. Rachel Miner was also an actress. The marriage didn’t last long and in 2000, they broke up. 2 years later, they got an official divorce.

In 2002, Macaulay started dating Mila Kunis. Their relationship lasted for 8 years, and they didn’t really make it public. Mila later said that it was really hard to keep their relationship a secret because Macaulay’s fans were really amazed when they saw him with a girl on the street. The break-up was hard for both of them.

© culkamania / Instagram

After his split from Kunis, it seemed that Culkin had pretty much given up on love. That was until 2017, when he met Brenda Song while filming Changeland. The film’s director, Seth Green, would later go on to say that he “didn’t see [their relationship] coming.” But Brenda and Macaulay hit it off very quickly, it especially helped that the 2 were both child stars and they bonded over that fact. As Song explained: “Child actors, we don’t even get to talk about it, you just look each other in the eye, and you nod, and we know.”
“People don’t realize how incredibly kind and loyal and sweet and smart he is,” Brenda says. “Truly what makes Mack so special is that he is so unapologetically Mack. He knows who he is, and he’s 100 percent okay with that. He’s worked really hard to be the person he is.”

© culkamania / Instagram

Just about a year after Macaulay and Brenda started going out, Culkin shared that he’s in for the long haul with his newfound love. He made it especially clear that he can’t wait to become a parent with her: “This one’s a good one, so I’m probably going to put some babies in her in a little bit.”
And while babies were still in development, the happy couple surrounded themselves with pets, to have someone fill the household. By 2020, Macaulay and Brenda shared 2 cats, a dog, a fish, and a parrot.

© American Horror Story / FX Networks

In 2021, Macaulay took part in American Horror Story. He plays one of the main roles in season 10 and his work has gotten a lot of very good reviews.
He made a splash when he appeared in a Gucci show. He looks great at the age of 41 and he finally feels great.
“Yeah, I’m a homebody,” he says. “It’s where these 2 former child stars, one still working as much as she can, the other not so sure, just want to be. With each other, doing whatever.”

Image Press Agency / ABACA / Abaca / East News, Invision / Invision / East News

Have you seen any works by Culkin other than Home Alone? Would you like to see him back on the screen and what roles would you like him to play?