Macaulay Culkin Shares How His Father Influences His Own Parenting

As the son of Christopher “Kit” Culkin and Patricia Brentrup, Macaulay Culkin and his seven siblings were thrust into the limelight at an early age. After becoming a father to sons Dakota and Carson with fiancée Brenda Song, Culkin’s earliest memories with his parents came flooding back. While he and Bentrup are still very close, he’s shaped his own parenting by trying to be the opposite of his own father.

His Early Memory of His Father Was a Promise to Himself

While talking with Oliver and Kate Hudson on their podcast, Sibling Revelry, Culkin recalled his tumultuous childhood and the relationship he and his siblings had with his father. “It’s one of my earliest memories of him, was, ‘When I grow up, this is how I’m not going to be with my kids,'” he said. “And now I’ve got kids of my own, and it’s like, you know, it makes me even more — you know? It kicks up some dust, you know? And I kind of go, you know, like, I can’t believe he was like that.”

Culkin has been very outspoken about his father’s alleged abusive treatment, but he acknowledges that he wouldn’t be the person he is if things had happened differently. “Yeah, it sucks, but it makes me the man I am today,” he said. “Yeah, I wouldn’t be the man. I wouldn’t be the father I am today if it wasn’t for my experiences, you know.”

Culkin Refused Father’s Visit, Says He Dared Judge to Arrest Him

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Culkin’s dad and mom split up in his early teens, and they went through a bitter custody battle. Despite being told he had to see his dad, he refused. “I told my lawyer I said, yeah, I’m not doing that,” he remembered. “He’s like, ‘well, you know, you’ll be in contempt of court’ and this and that. I go, okay, well how about this. I dare the judge to put me in jail for not wanting to visit his abusive father. Actually, I double down on that, I dare him to arrest the most famous kid in the world.”

Now 44 years old, Culkin has no relationship with his father, and neither does the rest of the family. “I haven’t spoken to him, and what would it be about thirty-something years?” he said. “Oh yeah, yeah, oh he did. He deserves it, too. You know, he’s a man who has had seven kids, and now he has four grandkids, and none of them want anything to do with him.”

Nowadays, he’s happy doing Pilates with Song and ensuring his kids have the childhood he didn’t. “They’re very confident, they’re very happy, they’re very smart and well adjusted,” he said proudly. “They’re pretty much almost all the things I wasn’t when I was a kid.”