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Meet Macaulay Culkin's Father, Kit Culkin Amid Home Alone Star’s Comments On Their 'Complicated' Relationship
Popular from Home Alone and Richie Rich, Macaulay Culkin, alleged that his father Kit Culkin, who also managed his career and finances until he was around 15, was “abusive, physically and mentally.”
Trigger Warning: This article includes references to mental and physical abuse.
Macaulay Culkin, actor and filmmaker best known for the 1990 Christmas holiday film Home Alone, has always been vocal about his difficult relationship with his father. Recently, he took to Instagram and wrote about his “complicated” relationship with his father Kit Culkin on the occasion of the upcoming Father’s Day this month.
“If you know a little about me then you’d know I’ve had a complicated relationship with Father’s Day in the past,” he captioned the post with a picture of a Father’s Day hamper consisting of a Darth Vader look-alike teddy bear and other Star Wars souvenirs. Culkin, now a father of two, further wrote, “But since becoming a papa myself I’ve decided to reinvent the wheel. Other than getting an hour or two of extra sleep I try to make the day a celebration of my boys more than me. After all, they are the ones who made me a father (no offense to Brenda).”
The 43-year-old actor has been in a relationship with actor Brenda Song (Changeland, Hannah Montana, The Suit Life of Zack & Cody). The couple welcomed their first son in 2021 and their second in 2022. Culkin continued in the post, “In our house Father’s Day isn’t held in as a high regard as birthdays or Christmas but it does mop the floor of such holidays as St. Patrick’s day, Valentine’s Day, and the 4th of July. I try to do fun things for the boys on Father’s Day. It’s a special day.” Expressing his gratitude for the PR team who sent him a Father’s Day care package with things that his children could enjoy, he concluded the post by saying that the day is not for me, but “for the people that make me feel like a father.”
Who is Macaulay Culkin's father Kit Culkin?
Born in New York City in December 1944, Kit Culkin’s father was a public relations professional and a "short-story writer and book reviewer" mother prior to having children. He had four siblings. He was an aspiring Hollywood actor who appeared in the 1961 Broadway production Becket, the 1964 Broadway adaptation of Hamlet, and the original 1961 film West Side Story.
Kit met North Dakota native and former stage actor Patricia Brentrup in 1974 at a construction site in Sundance where the latter was controlling traffic and Kit had stopped his truck. They were together since then until their separation in 1995 and “never found the need” for a legal marriage. Kit and Brentrup gave birth to seven children, Shane, Dakota, Macaulay, Kieran, Quinn, Christian, and Rory, respectively.
The family struggled financially before their kids became star actors in Hollywood with Kit working odd jobs including taxi driver, sacristan for a Catholic church, and Brentrup as a telephone operator.
Macaulay Culkin alleged that his father Kit Culkin was “physically and mentally” abusive
As per Culkin, Kit had quit his job to manage the actor’s career as he began to gain success in the 80s. In one his first instances of opening about his difficult relationship with his father, Culkin told the New York magazine in 2001, “My father was always, you know, abusive, but it didn’t get really, really, really bad until later on.” He also mentioned how his father pressured him to work when he was as young as 10-13 years old even when he did not want to and told Kit that it was exhausting for him.
He further detailed instances from his childhood including times when Kit allegedly made him sleep on the couch instead of a bed. Culkin was unaware of how much he was earning and his worth and said, “Kit was making me sleep on the couch, just because he could. Just to let you know who’s in charge and just to let you know if he doesn’t want you to sleep in a bed, you’re not going to sleep in a bed.”
Later, during an appearance on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast in 2018, Culkin said his father was a “bad man.” He continued, “He was abusive, physically and mentally — I can show you all my scars if I wanted to.”
Kit managed the actor’s finances and projects until he removed his parents’ names during the custody battle during their separation. It was only then that he realized his net worth was around 50 million dollars. “Basically, I had millions and millions of dollars in the bank, and my mother couldn’t pay the rent because she was spending all of her money on lawyers,” Culkin told New York magazine.
However, he has not emancipated himself from his parents.
Denying that he was ever abusive to any of his children, Kit's late partner Jeanette Krylowski told New York magazine that Brentrup had lied to their children to distance them from their father.
Kit has been estranged from his children since 1997. Culkin told the magazine, "I think there's two different fathers that I have. I have my father, and I have the one in my head. The real one is gone and should be gone."
Disclaimer: If you need support or know someone who is struggling with domestic violence or assault or abuse, please reach out to your nearest mental health specialist, NGO or speak to someone about it. There are several helplines available for the same.
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