Macaulay Culkin on Michael Jackson: “He Wanted to Make Sure I Wasn’t Alone in That”
- MJStory
- 4 days ago
- 12 min read
How Macaulay Culkin and his Family Described Their Friendship With Michael Jackson
Firsthand accounts, sworn testimony, and interviews paint a consistent picture that stands in clear contrast to the rumors built around their friendship.
Macaulay Culkin and Michael Jackson both grew up as child stars, experiencing childhoods that looked nothing like anyone else’s. Around the time the two became friends, Culkin was becoming the most famous child actor in the world, and Jackson, who had spent his own youth in the spotlight, knew that world from up close. What formed between them was a sense of familiarity – a shared understanding of what it meant to grow up under the industry pressures and constant attention.
After the 1993 allegations, the media recast that friendship into a parallel story neither of them recognized as their own. Coverage drifted from reporting to speculation, often edging into something close to obsession. The talking heads imposed their own distortions onto the friendship itself, creating versions of events that bore little resemblance to the accounts of the people who were actually there.
Culkin was gradually framed within that media narrative as a presumed victim – the missing testimony some were convinced would eventually emerge. It echoed a broader pattern in the coverage of Jackson himself, where firsthand accounts, timelines, and sworn statements were routinely overshadowed by the most sensational and dreadful interpretations.
This piece returns to the source – what Culkin actually said about the abuse allegations, his friendship with Michael Jackson, what his family observed, and what their time with Jackson really looked like.
In short: According to Macaulay, Kieran, and their father Kit, Michael Jackson never abused Macaulay Culkin or his siblings either, and none of them ever witnessed anything inappropriate. Their accounts have been consistent for decades. For anyone asking whether Macaulay Culkin was abused by Michael Jackson, the family’s answer has always been the same: He was not.
Macaulay Culkin’s Own Words
Macaulay Culkin has always rejected the idea that there was anything strange about his friendship with Michael Jackson. To him, it was rooted in something simple: both he and Jackson had been pushed into global fame long before they had the emotional tools to make sense of it, and very few people understood what that actually felt like.
“I was a peerless person,” Culkin explained. “Nobody else in my Catholic school even had this idea of what I was going through, and [Michael Jackson] was the kind of person who’d been through the exact same freakin’ thing and wanted to make sure I wasn’t alone in that.”
“At the end of the day, it’s almost easy to try to say, ‘Oh, it was weird,’ or whatever,” he said. “But it wasn’t, because it made sense. We were friends in the most simple way.”
To Culkin, the scrutiny had less to do with their friendship itself and more with how people reacted to Jackson’s fame, which made it, he said, “one of my friendships that people question only because he was the most famous person in the world.”
He described Jackson with unmistakable warmth. “He was fucking awesome! He was hilarious, he was sweet. People don’t know how funny he fucking was. He liked prank-calling people, he was very good with his voice, obviously […] He was charming, fucking funny, silly. He was generous. He was gentle.”
Culkin recalled their friendship truly began shortly after Home Alone. They had met once before, very briefly, when Culkin was performing The Nutcracker. Jackson came backstage, recognized him from Uncle Buck, and exchanged a few words – but the real friendship formed about a year later.
He said Jackson called him one day. “Hi, it’s Michael.” And I’m like, hey. It was this weird, random moment that ended with Jackson inviting the Culkin family to Neverland: “Why don’t you come over to my house?”
Culkin believed part of the connection came from the way children saw Jackson. Kids didn't treat him like a mythical figure. “It was for the same reason why he liked me, the fact that I didn’t care who he was. I talked to him like he was a normal human being,” he said. “[To children] he’s Michael Jackson the pop singer, but he’s not the God, the ‘King of Pop’ or anything like that. He’s just a guy who is actually very kid-like himself and wants to go out there and wants to play video games with you.”
He felt Jackson could relax around him for that exact reason. He did not put him on a pedestal, and their banter was casual from the start: “Believe me, I call him a jerk all the time. I call him a fat head… and he gets it.”
Culkin echoed this again years later: “He enjoyed my youthfulness. He liked being a kid with me. It never struck me as odd. I never felt uncomfortable. That was just the way he was.”
Jackson’s friendship was not limited to Macaulay. He became close with the entire Culkin family, who were frequent visitors at Neverland. The friendship continued into Macaulay's adulthood, and Jackson later named him the godfather of his two eldest children, Prince and Paris, with whom Culkin remains close to this day.
The Myth of Michael Jackson’s Bedroom
Culkin also clarified one of the most misinterpreted aspects of their friendship: the fact that he sometimes slept in Jackson’s room.
“Nothing happened,” he told Larry King in 2003. “We played video games; we played at his amusement park.”
He explained that the idea of “sleeping in Jackson's room” had been twisted into something it never was. “I don’t think you understand – Michael Jackson’s bedroom is two stories and it has three bathrooms,” Culkin said. “So, when I slept in his bedroom, yes, but you have to understand the whole scenario.”
Culkin noted that Jackson sometimes phrased things in a way that comes across as unusual, not because the situations were odd, but because he was “not very good at explaining himself.” He described Jackson as “not a very social person. He's someone who has been sheltered and sheltering himself for the last 30 years,” noting that Jackson didn’t always articulate what he meant and didn’t always understand why people reacted the way they did.
Macaulay Takes the Stand
In 2005, during Michael Jackson’s trial over the Arvizo allegations, prosecutors attempted to broaden their case by bringing up the names of other children who had spent time at Neverland. Macaulay Culkin, who had never alleged any misconduct and had denied the claims repeatedly – became one of the names used to suggest a wider pattern of abuse. Several former Neverland employees were called to repeat stories they had already shared with the media years earlier, claiming they had seen something inappropriate involving him.
It was Jackson’s defense, not the prosecution, that called Culkin to testify, giving the jury their first opportunity to hear directly from him.
Culkin defended Jackson without hesitation. He was 24 years old at the time, fully independent, and, as Jackson’s attorney Thomas Mesereau later recalled, under pressure from his own team NOT to get involved. “Chris Tucker and Macaulay Culkin will always go down in my book as loyal, good friends,” Mesereau said. “Their managers and agents didn’t want them to get involved, and they both told me, ‘Michael needs us, we’re going to be there.’”
In court, Mesereau established the basics. Culkin testified under oath that he had known Jackson since he was “nine or ten,” had spoken with him “over 100 times,” frequently visited Neverland, and most recently visited in “about a year or so” (around 2004). According to his testimony, his longest stay at Neverland was in 2000, when he was 18.
Culkin also made it clear that he was never isolated at Neverland (a claim that was repeated by both the 2005 prosecutors and the Leaving Neverland accusers). His family regularly accompanied him, and nothing was off-limits. When asked whether Jackson ever tried to separate him from his parents or siblings, Culkin was unequivocal:
“Absolutely not. It was a real open-door policy… that applied to everyone.”
He described the visits as normal, open, and family-oriented, with movie nights, arcades, water-balloon fights, golf carts, dinners and time spent with Jackson’s children. It was, he said, “just good old fun.”
Then Mesereau addressed the accusations head-on:
Q: “Did Mr. Jackson ever molest you?”
A: “Never.”
Q: “Did he ever improperly touch you?”
A: “Absolutely not.”
Q: “Has he ever touched you in any sexual type of way?”
A: “No.”
Culkin called the allegations “Absolutely ridiculous.”
He also told the jury how he first learned that prosecutors were claiming something had happened to him: “Somebody called me up and said, ‘You should probably check out CNN, because they’re saying something about you.’”
What surprised him most was that no one involved had ever contacted him:
“It was amazing to me that nobody approached me and even asked me whether or not the allegations were true… They didn’t even double-check it… they didn’t even ask.”
The Last Time Culkin Saw Michael Jackson
The last time the two ever spoke was during a recess in the 2005 trial. Culkin walked into the restroom and Jackson entered a few moments later.
“We better not talk,” Jackson told him. “I don’t want to influence your testimony.”
The two laughed a little. They hugged. Culkin later recalled how exhausted Jackson looked: “[He was] worn down, drained by the ordeal.”
After that day, they never saw each other again.
Years later, Culkin reflected on how deeply the trial had altered Jackson’s life. “[Michael] didn’t wanna go back home. Everything in his life felt tainted,” he said. “That was what happened with that last trial, everything felt tainted. The only thing that was important to him was his immediate family.”
Jackson passed away in 2009. Culkin attended the private funeral.
A Narrative That Wouldn’t Die
Culkin’s testimony was met with familiar skepticism. For some, even hearing him speak under oath was not enough to dislodge a narrative that had already formed without him. Years later, that same cycle resurfaced in Leaving Neverland (2019), which revived the very assumptions Culkin had refuted for decades, pulling his name back into the conversation against his will despite his clear and consistent statements.
In Leaving Neverland, Wade Robson suggested that Jackson had “replaced” him with Culkin – a framing meant to suggest a recurring pattern. The HBO series leaned on that implication, positioning Culkin as the next link in the chain (the irony, of course, is that Culkin was older than Robson, a fact the film never addresses).
Director Dan Reed acknowledged Culkin’s denials only in passing, fleetingly noting that Culkin had denied the allegations while still using his name to suggest a broader issue.
In interviews following the film’s release, Culkin said the same thing he had said in court:
“Look, I’m gonna begin with the line – it’s not a line, it’s the truth: He never did anything to me. I never saw him do anything. And especially at this flash point in time, I’d have no reason to hold anything back. The guy has passed on. If anything I’m not gonna say it would be stylish or anything like that, but right now is a good time to speak up. And if I had something to speak up about, I would totally do it. But no, I never saw anything; he never did anything."
At a certain point, the persistence of these narratives revealed something deeper. The way Culkin’s name kept resurfacing showed that the issue was never what he experienced, it was what some people needed – or wanted – his experience to be.
The almost wishful insistence on casting him as the victim who would finally validate a story already decided on said far more about the public’s projections than it ever did about Culkin or Jackson. This wasn’t concern or a search for truth; it was projection.
The Culkin Family’s Perspective
Macaulay’s brother, Kieran Culkin, usually kept a low profile, but on the few occasions he spoke about Jackson, he was clear and straightforward.
After Living with Michael Jackson aired in 2003, journalists asked him about Jackson’s comments on the Culkin siblings sleeping in his room or joining him on hot-air-balloon rides.
“Have you ever been in a balloon? It’s fucking cool! When you’re up you can see everything so clearly, it’s exactly like flying,” he said, brushing off the insinuations.
Reporters noted that he avoided most Jackson questions – “a nod here, a grimace there” – but it was clear he was loyal to Jackson. Kieran “wanted to defend his friend”, but knew doing so risked igniting a media spectacle.
“I’d like to talk about it,” he admitted, “but it’s kind of weird, as I haven’t spoken with Michael for over two years.”
He ultimately criticized Bashir’s methods and the broader sensationalism, saying:
“I read stuff all the time in newspapers that I know for a fact is bullshit… And people believe it all. So I don’t even read any of it anymore.”
Years later, in 2019, while working for HBO, he declined to comment on Leaving Neverland:
“I can’t be helpful to anyone. Anything I say could only hurt somebody.”
A Parent’s View of Neverland
Macaulay’s father, Kit Culkin, also corroborated his sons’ accounts. In his memoir Lost Boy, he offered one of the clearest firsthand descriptions of what it was actually like to spend time at Neverland, descriptions that stand in direct contrast to the myths built around it.
Kit wrote that Jackson’s home was neither secretive nor closed off, but open, active, and constantly supervised.
“Michael’s bedroom (an enormous room with alcoves and dressing rooms and a fireplace and French doors leading out to a private garden, as well as a stairway leading to the entire upstairs) was almost always an open place to hang out in, as was most all of the rest of the house,” he recalled. His children – and he himself – would sit on the bed to play cards, checkers, or watch TV, but he noted they did the same “most everywhere else also.”
He explained that at Neverland he rarely enforced bedtime, and his children often fell asleep wherever they were. They “might of occasion fall asleep” in the bedroom, just as they might fall asleep “most anywhere else and at most any daylight hour.” After supper, he often had to round them up and carry them to their own accommodations, sometimes by golf cart. They fell asleep in the movie theater, in the toy train room, and once, he remembered, one of them was found asleep on the carousel.
Kit also distinguished between private houseguests like his own family and the large groups of visiting children who arrived as part of Jackson’s charity work. These visits were structured and supervised. “A busload or two of kids might arrive… be taken straight to the amusement park or the movie theater, and then just as swiftly be bused back off the grounds,” he wrote. “On no occasion” were they brought into the house.
Across all his time at Neverland, Kit said he never witnessed anything remotely suggestive of inappropriate behavior. “I never saw or heard anything at all during my early days of knowing Michael to suggest that he was a pedophile,” he wrote.
He also stressed that Neverland was not the child-centered isolation portrayed in tabloids; adults were present constantly, including high-profile visitors. “This list was hardly confined to children… former President and neighbor Ronald Reagan, ‘Just-Say-No’ Nancy, Secretary of Defense William Cohen, and not a few others,” he wrote. None, he added, gave any impression “that the estate was (goodness knows) a den of pedophilia.”
The Full Picture: The Culkin Family’s Record
When Macaulay, Kieran, and Kit are taken together, their descriptions align on every essential detail. There is no drift, no contradiction, no hidden corner waiting to be discovered, and that brings this story to its clearest conclusion.
For over three decades, Macaulay Culkin, his brother, and his father have been saying the exact same thing. Their accounts have remained steady and unchanging. They describe a genuine friendship, a welcoming home where people were always around, and nothing that even remotely resembled the allegation that Michael Jackson abused Culkin. The gap between what they lived and what others insisted on believing speaks for itself. Clinging to the opposite story is not vigilance; it is bias. And at this point, it is long past time to let go of this fixation.
A simple and innocent friendship did not fit the accusation people wanted to attach to it. The fact that nothing happened to Culkin, and the context he has always given about their long friendship, heavily undermined the dark narrative built around Jackson.
After all these years, the consistent, corroborated accounts leave no room for confusion. The story people kept chasing simply is not there.
Sources
State of California v. Michael Joe Jackson, Case No. 1133603, Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara, Department 8 — Testimony of Macaulay Culkin, May 11, 2005. (Official Court Transcript)
Consequence of Sound — “Macaulay Culkin opens up about his relationship with Michael Jackson” https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/01/macauley-culkin-opens-up-about-relationship-with-michael-jackson-it-never-struck-me-as-odd-i-never-felt-uncomfortable/
Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum — Podcast interview https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/inside-of-you-with-michael-ros-541095/episodes/macaulay-culkin-35662623
“WTF with Marc Maron — Episode 883: Macaulay Culkin / Cameron Esposito” (Podcast episode). https://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-883-macaulay-culkin-cameron-esposito
Esquire — “Macaulay Culkin on Life Now, Home Alone, and Michael Jackson”https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a30680749/macaulay-culkin-interview-life-now-after-home-alone-2020/
CNN — Larry King Live Transcript, May 27, 2004https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/lkl/date/2004-05-27/segment/00
Voici — Coverage of Culkin discussing Hollywood, addiction, and Michael Jacksonhttps://www.voici.fr/news-people/actu-people/la-drogue-michael-jackson-l-enfer-hollywoodien-macaulay-culkin-se-livre-comme-jamais-596512
Closer — “Macaulay Culkin ému par le souvenir de Michael Jackson”https://www.closermag.fr/people/macaulay-culkin-emu-par-le-souvenir-de-michael-jackson-il-a-ete-mon-meilleur-ami-622495
The Guardian — Kieran Culkin profile/interviewhttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/jun/14/features
Yahoo News UK — Macaulay & Kieran Culkin on abuse allegations involving Michael Jacksonhttps://uk.news.yahoo.com/macaulay-culkin-kieran-culkin-michael-jackson-abuse-allegations-100021397.html
Kit Culkin, Lost Boy. Self-published, released May 9, 2005 (KitCulkin.com).
I don't think Macaulay Culkin ever said something bad about Michael Jackson. What if all those are just speculations?