“If you know a little about me,” Culkin wrote, “then you’d know I’ve had a complicated relationship with Father’s Day in the past.”
Macaulay Culkin is opening up about how Father’s Day, once a “complicated” holiday for him, has become a more celebratory affair.
The Home Alone star, who shares two kids with fiancée Brenda Song — three-year-old son Dakota and another baby boy who’s name has not yet been revealed — took to Instagram to explain how his perspective on the celebration of dads has shifted since becoming a father himself.
“If you know a little about me,” Culkin wrote, “Then you’d know I’ve had a complicated relationship with Father’s Day in the past.”
The 43-year-old actor, who has been open about his issues with his own dad, revealed his stance on the day has changed since having his own children.
“Since becoming a papa myself I’ve decided to reinvent the wheel,” he continued.
“Other than getting an hour or two of extra sleep I try to make the day a celebration of my boys more than me,” Culkin continued. “After all, they are the ones who made me a father (no offense to Brenda).”
He stressed that he doesn’t believe the day is as important “as birthdays or Christmas,” however, for him, It does place higher on the hierarchy than “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,” Culkin said. “It’s a special day.”
The caption was paired with a Father’s Day press package he received from Lucasfilm, filled with Star Wars merchandise.
“All of this is a way to say thank you to @lucasfilm for sending me a care package full of things that are more meant for my children to enjoy (with the exception of the hot sauce),” he said of the PR mailer.
He then concluded, “Father’s Day isn’t for me, it’s for the people that make me feel like a father.”
Culkin does not often speak on his relationship with his father. In an interview with New York Magazine in 2001, he revealed his dad made a lot of demands when Culkin became a child star.
In an interview with Marc Maron on his WTF podcast in 2018, the child star said his dad “disliked” him even before Culkin became a household name, bringing in some cash flow for the family.
“It was sour from early on, even before the fame stuff. He disliked me too, we didn’t like each other,” he said. “He was a bad man, he was abusive, physically and mentally. I can show you all my scars if you want to. He was a bad dude, across the board. I started catching the brunt of it. Better me than somebody else.”
Culkin’s brother, actor Kieran Culkin, also spoke about Kit in a 2021 interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Claiming he did not have the same “crazy, negative, awful, traumatic experiences as a child actor” as Macaulay, Kieran insisted Kit was not abusive to him — but said his father “wasn’t a good person and, yeah, probably not a good parent” either.
The last time Kieran said he spoke with his father was in 2014 when Kit came to see Kieran on Broadway in “This Is Our Youth.” When asked how he felt about the visit, Kieran replied, “F— him, I don’t care.”
