Macaulay Culkin Opens Up About Being Home Alone With Michael Jackson.
He invited me and my family up to his ranch to meet him, and because me and him have led similar childhoods in certain forms.
“And what happened at the house? That’s what all these things that you see are alleging.”
“It’s so weird, you know, what did that—nothing happened, you know, I mean nothing really. I mean we played video games, you know, we played in the backyard.”
Macaulay Culkin was one of the biggest child stars in the world when he became close friends with Michael Jackson.
Their friendship led to private moments away from the cameras, but Culkin would remember them for years.
Now as an adult, Macaulay has opened up about what it was really like spending time alone with the King of Pop, revealing memories that offer a different look at their unusual friendship.
“Yeah, he’s just, you know, a guy who’s actually very kid-like himself and wants to go out there and wants to play video games with you and things like that.”
“Did your parents encourage it?”
“Um, they weren’t against it, you know, it wasn’t like they encouraged it or like pushing me upon it. It was just kind of like I wanted to hang out with him and they were fine with it.”
When Macaulay Culkin was still a child, he visited Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch and spent time there without his parents.
Because of Michael’s later allegations involving children, those visits became the subject of intense speculation, but Culkin has consistently said that nothing inappropriate happened between them, describing Michael as a genuine friend and someone he trusted during his childhood.
“Why do you think he likes young people?”
“It’s because—the same reason why he liked me was the fact that I didn’t care who he was. That was the thing. I talked to him like he was a normal human being, and that’s what kids do to him, because he’s not—I mean, he’s Michael Jackson the pop singer, but he’s not the god of, you know, the King of Pop or anything like that.”
Macaulay Culkin’s friendship with Michael Jackson began in a surprisingly casual way.
Before they became close, Macaulay had briefly met Michael backstage while performing in The Nutcracker at Lincoln Center.
Michael already recognized him from Uncle Buck, and sometime later he unexpectedly called Macaulay and invited him over to his house.
What made their friendship different was that Macaulay never treated Michael like the larger-than-life superstar everyone else saw.
He knew Michael was famous, but he wasn’t a huge fan.
So he simply treated him like another person.
“And like in The Nutcracker, I was playing Fritz, and he came backstage one day, and I actually met him very briefly, and he kind of recognized me ’cause it was after I’d done Uncle Buck, and so he kind of mentioned something, and then he calls me up kind of out of the blue. It’s kind of just this weird random thing. He was like, ‘Why don’t you come over to my house?'”
Macaulay has suggested that this normal attitude was one reason they connected so easily.
He could joke with Michael, tease him, and even call him names like Fathead, rather than constantly putting him on a pedestal.
Their friendship eventually became close enough that Macaulay spent time at Neverland as a child.
Despite years of speculation about what happened there, Culkin has repeatedly said that nothing inappropriate happened between them.
“The thing is, I didn’t react to him the way most people did. Most people like, ‘Michael Jackson.’ And you know, I mean, he was a god to people, and to me, he was—you know, I knew he was a pop singer, but beyond that, you know, I wasn’t one of the fans. I think that’s one of the reasons why we connected.”
Macaulay also addressed one of the details that had attracted the most attention over the years: staying in Michael’s bedroom at Neverland.
He explained that people often misunderstood what that actually meant because Michael’s bedroom was an enormous space with multiple rooms and bathrooms.
According to Culkin, simply saying that he slept in Michael’s bedroom made the situation sound completely different from what it actually was.
He also described Michael as someone who had spent much of his life isolated from ordinary social situations, which made him uncomfortable when explaining himself to other people.
“Well, the thing is with that whole thing, is that, you know, they go, ‘Oh, you slept in the same bedroom as him.’ It’s like, I don’t think you understand. Michael Jackson’s bedroom is two stories and has like three bathrooms and this and that. So when I slept in his bedroom, yeah, but you have to understand the whole scenario.”
But Macaulay believed that their friendship worked because he never treated Michael like the King of Pop.
He spoke to him normally, joked with him, and didn’t care about his celebrity status.
Culkin felt that Michael appreciated this same quality in children because they could see him as Michael the person rather than the superstar everyone else saw.
“The thing is with Michael, is that he’s not very good at explaining himself, and he never really has been ’cause he’s not a very social person. I mean, you’re talking about someone who’s been sheltered and sheltering himself also for the last like 30 years, or you know. And so he’s not very good at communicating to people, not very good at conveying what he’s actually trying to say to you. And so, when he says something like that, you know, people—you know, he doesn’t quite understand why people react the way that they do.”
Years later, Macaulay Culkin was still willing to speak openly about his friendship with Michael Jackson.
In his Esquire cover story, he made it clear that his memories of Michael had not changed.
Culkin acknowledged that serious allegations had been made against Jackson, but when it came to his own experience, he said he had never witnessed anything inappropriate.
His position was simple.
If he had seen something wrong, he would have spoken about it.
Instead, he maintained that nothing happened to him during the years he spent around Michael.
“Now, Macaulay has always said that Michael never did anything inappropriate to him despite other sexual accusations against the pop star. Now, in the interview, Macaulay says, in part, quote, ‘If I had something to speak up about, I would totally do it. But no, I never saw anything. He never did anything.'”
As Macaulay grew older, he continued to stand by what he remembered from his friendship with Michael Jackson.
Even years after Michael’s death, Culkin has spoken openly about their time together and has never suggested that anything inappropriate happened between them.
His memories are especially notable because he was one of the children who spent considerable time around Michael, including visits to Neverland.
While public speculation has surrounded their friendship for decades, Culkin has consistently separated his personal experience from the allegations made by others.
“What do you make of what he’s going through now?”
“Look, I—you know, like I said, it’s unfortunate. And, you know, it’s a circus right now.”
“You think he’s getting a bad rap?”
“Um, you know, I think so. Yeah, I mean, this—you know, I mean, listen, like look what happened the first time. The first time this happened to him, you know, if someone had done something like that to my kid, I would, you know, I wouldn’t just settle for some money. You know, I’d make sure the guy was in jail. You know, and it just really goes to show—I mean, as soon as they got the money and they ran. I mean, that’s really what happened the first time. And so, you know, I don’t know, it just—it’s a little crazy and I kind of have taken a step back from the whole thing because it is a bit of a circus.”
For him, Michael was someone he knew personally, joked with, and trusted during his childhood.
And when asked directly about what happened during those private visits, Culkin’s answer remained the same.
Nothing inappropriate happened.
“He’s just a sweet person and he’s just—I’m very happy to have him in my life. I think one of the great things about our relationship is me and him could just act like kids all the time and that’s kind of what we do.”
And Macaulay is the godfather of Michael’s two kids.
“How are they doing?”
“Oh, they’re doing great. They’re beautiful. They’re beautiful. And these kids—they just keep on getting bigger. I think, you know, as normal of a life as Michael can give them, the better.”
In footage from Neverland, Michael Jackson and Macaulay Culkin can be seen enjoying a playful water balloon fight together.
The moment gives a glimpse into the lighter side of their friendship, with the two simply having fun and behaving like kids away from the cameras and the pressure of Hollywood.
“Okay, so we’re preparing the water balloon fight.”
For Culkin, these were the kinds of ordinary, playful memories he associated with Michael rather than the disturbing rumors that later surrounded their friendship.
“We’re teams. We use the whole ranch. My favorite thing in the world to play—if you call it a sport, it’s a water balloon fight.”
At Neverland Ranch, Michael Jackson and Macaulay Culkin shared plenty of playful moments, and one of them involved a simple water fight.
Michael jokingly pushed Macaulay into the water, turning the moment into the kind of silly prank you would expect between friends.
“I’ve never lost a water balloon fight. I’m the Michael Jordan of water balloon fighting.”
“Seasons of doom. Yay! We won the fight again and again.”
“Janet, what’s it like on the winning team?”
“If he’s going to get sprayed—”
“Oh, I love it. You could have gone on and on as far as I can. You’re pranksters, you know. Look at you. Look at you.”
Macaulay wasn’t treated like a celebrity guest, and Michael wasn’t acting like the King of Pop.
For those few moments, they were simply two people enjoying themselves and messing around.
“This is the face of a person who would do something like that. I’m innocent right now. I mean, I went through this entire water balloon fight.”
Neverland gave Michael a private place where he could escape the constant pressure surrounding his career.
The huge property had gardens, animals, amusement rides, games, and plenty of space for children to run around and have fun.
Macaulay, who was already one of the biggest child stars in Hollywood, could spend time there without having to worry about the usual attention that followed him everywhere.
“Knowing Macaulay Culkin, he made sure he schemed on me. He told me to go up by the diving board, and I went up there like a nut.”
“No! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you, Max!”
Their friendship was built around these ordinary moments.
They played video games, joked with each other, and spent time exploring the property.
Macaulay later explained that he never treated Michael like some untouchable superstar.
He talked to him normally, teased him, and even called him names jokingly.
That relaxed attitude was something Michael apparently appreciated.
“Woah, woah. I’m not doing the Superman. Ready? Get set, go. Cheater. Woah.”
“He cheats a lot. But he’s fun. He loves to have fun.”
And when Macaulay was later asked about what happened during those visits to Neverland, his answer remained consistent.
He said that nothing inappropriate happened between them.
His memories were of spending time with a friend, playing games, and enjoying the unusual freedom that Neverland offered.
“In the red. No. If I dry it up, they push me right back in.”
Years after their friendship first began, Culkin continued to describe Michael as someone who genuinely understood what he was going through as a child star.
Their connection was unusual, but according to Macaulay, there was nothing mysterious about why the two became close.
They had something in common that very few people around them could truly understand.
They had both become famous far too young.
On the Inside of You podcast, Culkin explained their friendship.
He says this, he says he reached out to me because a lot of things were happening big and fast with me.
I think he identified with that.
It’s almost easy to say it was weird or whatever.
At the end of the day, we were friends.
Macaulay’s childhood changed almost overnight after Home Alone became a massive success.
He went from being an ordinary child actor to one of the most recognizable young faces in the world.
Suddenly, his name was everywhere.
People knew his face, and his private life was no longer completely private.
Michael understood that kind of pressure better than almost anyone.
He had been performing since childhood and had spent decades dealing with the strange reality of being recognized everywhere he went.
“But when you grow up as I did in front of 100 million people since the age of five, you’re automatically different. My childhood was completely taken away from me. There was no Christmas, there was no birthdays.”
That shared experience appears to have been one of the strongest foundations of their friendship.
Macaulay explained that Michael reached out to him during a period when things were happening very quickly in his life.
Instead of seeing Culkin simply as another famous child, Michael seemed to recognize what he was experiencing.
He knew what it was like to have adults constantly surrounding you, to have people making decisions for you, and to have the entire world watching while you were still trying to figure out who you were.
“Yeah, Michael Jackson was hilarious, sweet, he was funny.”
He talked about why he kind of hit it off with MJ.
Um, he explained that nobody in his Catholic school really related to his situation.
Here was part of his quote: “He was the kind of person who’d been through the exact same freaking thing and wanted to make sure I wasn’t alone.”
For Macaulay, that understanding mattered.
He has explained that there were not many people at his Catholic school who could relate to his situation.
His classmates were living completely different lives while he was dealing with movie sets, fame, interviews, photographers, and the pressure that came with being a child celebrity.
Michael had already lived through that exact experience.
He knew what it meant to grow up famous, and according to Culkin, that made him someone who could make Macaulay feel less alone.
Macaulay once described Michael as someone who had been through essentially the same thing and wanted to make sure he wasn’t alone.
That helps explain why their friendship became so important to him.
It wasn’t simply about Michael being a world-famous musician or Macaulay being a successful young actor.
Behind those enormous careers were two people who had experienced an unusually public childhood, and Macaulay never treated Michael like everyone else did.
That was another major reason they connected.
To millions of people, Michael Jackson was the King of Pop, a global superstar who seemed almost larger than life.
But Culkin didn’t approach him that way.
He wasn’t obsessed with Michael’s celebrity status.
He could joke with him, tease him, and talk to him like an ordinary person.
Michael apparently appreciated that because he could spend time with Macaulay without constantly being reminded that he was one of the most famous people on Earth.
“So, I like that they bonded and kind of were there for each other. Now, Macaulay is actually godfather to Jackson’s three kids. He’s got Paris, Prince, and Michael Joseph. He continues to have a really strong relationship with the family. He is very protective of Paris Jackson. In an interview last year, he had said, ‘She’s very beloved by me.'”
The friendship later became the subject of intense public discussion because of allegations made against Michael by other people.
Macaulay, however, has consistently separated those allegations from his own personal experience.
He has repeatedly said that Michael never did anything inappropriate to him.
In interviews over the years, his position has remained remarkably consistent.
If he had experienced or witnessed something wrong, he has said he would have spoken about it.
“But we have to cover it, so let’s ask about it. What’s the relationship that you had with Michael Jackson?”
“Uh, had or have? I mean, it’s kind of—”
“Had or both?”
“You know, whatever.”
“Let’s go with had or have.”
“Listen, you know, he’s just—he’s a good friend of mine, and he still is. I mean, everything that’s going on, I mean, it’s unfortunate. It’s an unfortunate situation for everyone involved, and you know, and—”
“First get to meet him?”
“Uh, I first met him—he kind of called me randomly, like out of the blue. He just kind of like, ‘Hi, it’s Michael.’ I’m just like, ‘Hey.'”
“And this is after Home Alone?”
“This is after Home Alone. I actually had met him before—I was doing Nutcracker at Lincoln Center. I was playing Fritz, and he came backstage.”
That is why Macaulay’s comments have remained so significant whenever the subject of Michael’s relationships with children comes up.
He was not speaking about someone he had briefly met at a party.
He was describing a friendship that began while he was still a child and included spending time at Neverland.
Yet, even with all the controversy surrounding Michael, Culkin has continued to describe his own memories in positive terms.
He has called Michael funny, sweet, and hilarious.
He has also explained that their friendship felt completely normal to him.
That word is important because the outside world often viewed their relationship through the unusual circumstances surrounding it.
One was a famous adult musician and the other was a famous child actor.
But Culkin’s own explanation was that they simply connected because they understood each other.
“Right. I remember they did that—he was in the Black or White video. At one point, I guess the two of them had a close relationship.”
“They were very dear friends. They both came up as child stars and they knew the rigors and the pressures of being a child star.”
Their relationship also continued long after Macaulay stopped being a child.
Michael remained an important person in his life and their friendship didn’t disappear simply because the two grew older.
In fact, their connection became so close that Macaulay eventually became the godfather of Michael’s three children, Prince, Paris, and Biggie.
That connection with the Jackson family continued even after Michael’s death in 2009.
Macaulay remained close to the children and has spoken warmly about them over the years.
His relationship with Paris Jackson has received particular attention because of how openly he has supported her.
He has described Paris as someone very dear to him, showing that the friendship Michael formed with Macaulay eventually became a connection between Macaulay and the next generation of the Jackson family.
There is something especially meaningful about that relationship because Macaulay was not simply an outside celebrity who happened to know Michael.
He had been part of Michael’s private circle during childhood.
He understood the man behind the superstar image and that connection continued through the family Michael left behind.
Paris has also spoken about Macaulay and the role he has played in her life.
Their relationship reflects how deeply connected Macaulay became to the Jackson family.
Michael may have originally brought them together, but the bond eventually became something that existed independently of him.
That is also why Macaulay has remained protective when Michael’s name comes up.
He has his own memories and he has never presented his friendship as something that needs to be explained away.
For him, Michael was someone who understood what it was like to grow up under extraordinary pressure.
He was someone who could relate to the strange experience of becoming famous before having the chance to experience an ordinary childhood.
“What reaction has happened to you from all of this?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, people. How do people inquire of you a lot about it?”
“Uh, sometimes. Yeah, I mean, you know, people always have like their opinions. They always—you know, it’s funny. I mean, people always talk to me about him ’cause, you know, I’m one of these people who built anything about my life, really, to get me going, you know? And so, yeah, I mean, I freely and openly talk about him and stuff like that.”
And perhaps that is the part of their friendship that is easiest to overlook.
People often focus on the age difference, the fame, or the controversy, but Culkin’s explanation focuses on something much simpler.
Two people who had grown up in the spotlight found someone who understood their world.
“I realize that many of our world’s problems today, from the inner-city crime to large-scale wars and terrorism, and our overcrowded prisons, are a result of the fact that children have had their childhood stolen from them. The magic, the wonder, the mystery, and the innocence of a child’s heart are the seeds of creativity that will heal the world.”
Macaulay had become famous because of movies.
Michael had become famous through music.
Their careers were completely different, but their childhood experiences had similarities.
Both were surrounded by adults.
Both were recognized.
And both had very little opportunity to live an ordinary life.
“And in appreciation for working on the Black or White short film, we’d like to say thank you, and we love you, and we think—”
“And John—”
“And John—”
“You did a wonderful job.”
“John, because—”
“What man?”
“John. What man?”
Make sure to check out our other videos on the screen.
