Macaulay Culkin shot to fame as Kevin McCallister in Home Alone back in 1990, but his love life was just as surprising as his box-office success. At only 17, the young actor took the plunge and married actress Rachel Miner.
His ex-wife, Miner, had already started building her career around the same time. She appeared in Woody Allen’s Alice in 1990, then found herself in millions of living rooms as Michelle Bauer on Guiding Light. She appeared on the soap opera project until 1995, which gave her the kind of visibility that led to more work on the big and small screen.
Their early marriage, though, was short-lived. Just two years later, Culkin and his young wife went their separate ways.
These days, Mac is in a beautiful relationship with actress Brenda Song. The two share two children, and while fans already see her as his future wife, the couple has kept quiet about whether they’ve officially said “I do.”
Macaulay Culkin and His Ex-Wife Rachel Miner Married When They Were 17
Back in April 1998, Macaulay and Rachel surprised fans by announcing they were ready to marry. The young couple described themselves as “thrilled to have found each other as soul mates at such a tender age.”
Just two months later, on June 21, they made it official with a small ceremony in Connecticut. Both were only 17 at the time and required parental consent to wed, according to the Associated Press.
They Divorced in 2002
The young marriage didn’t last long. In 2000, Culkin and his former spouse, Rachel, decided to go their separate ways and called the split “amicable.” Two years later, the divorce was finalized.
Even while things were ending with his wife, Mac had already moved on with a new romance. He began seeing That ’70s Show star Mila Kunis, though the divorce papers were still waiting for signatures. “They were really in love and everyone was against it, especially the parents. But it was a crazy time, and they just did it,” a friend said at the time.
On top of it all, Mac was also dealing with family trouble. He had cut ties with his father, Kit, and none of the seven Culkin kids were in touch with him. “It’s not like he’s barred from contacting them,” the same friend explained. “He just doesn’t.”
Culkin and Kunis stayed together for nearly a decade, dating from 2002 until 2010.
Is Macaulay Culkin Married to Brenda Song?
Culkin met Brenda Song in 2014 at Seth Green’s house, but sparks didn’t fly right away. It wasn’t until 2017, when they reunited in Thailand while filming Green’s movie Changeland, that the friendship turned into something more. From that point on, the two became inseparable.
Even after more than eight years together, the couple still hasn’t officially married. In January 2022, PEOPLE confirmed they were engaged after Song was spotted in Beverly Hills with a diamond ring on her left hand. “Macaulay and Brenda have loved being together as a family since welcoming Dakota. The engagement is the natural next step for them. They are excited for their future together,” a source said at the time.
In September 2022, Song talked about wedding planning with PEOPLE, admitting it was expensive and tough to manage while raising kids. She highlighted her Amazon Handmade wedding collection and pointed to a gold bracelet engraved with her future husband Culkin’s name. She explained that the actress planned to have a matching one made for their son as well, calling the idea “really special.”
Before her romance with Culkin, Song had been briefly engaged to Trace Cyrus, though the two ended their engagement in June 2012.
Culkin and Song Have Two Kids
The couple welcomed their first child, son Dakota Song Culkin, on April 5, 2021.
In December 2022, the couple became parents again with the birth of their second son, Carson. The news was confirmed in March 2023 when Culkin’s brother Kieran mentioned it during an interview with Access Hollywood. He explained He hadn’t met the baby yet, noting the distance between his home in New York and their life in Los Angeles made it difficult with his own young kids.
Culkin’s Controversy Over Past Comments About His Future Wife and Children
Not long after Culkin and Song welcomed their first son in 2021, old comments from a 2018 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience began to surface and drew heavy criticism.
On the podcast, Culkin, who had been dating Song since 2017, joked about her Asian heritage and the appearance of their potential future children. He compared the idea of having “tiny little Asian babies” to raising “a bunch of Sean Lennons,” and even admitted that his first joke to Song had been about the shape of her eyes.
Culkin argued at the time that being with an Asian partner — and one day becoming the father of multiracial children — gave him permission to make such jokes, a stance that critics quickly labeled fetishizing. While Culkin praised Song for laughing along, many Asian Americans and advocates said the remarks reduced both his future wife and their children to punchlines.
Scholars and activists responded with strong words. Pawan Dhingra, a professor at Amherst College, said the comments were belittling and turned Song’s identity into the joke itself. Sung Yeon Choimorrow of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum added that Culkin was using his relationship and fatherhood as a “passport” to make Asian jokes, repeating stereotypes that have long put Asian women in danger.
Both stressed that having a child of color doesn’t mean a parent understands what their kids will face. When the backlash surfaced, Culkin didn’t respond to the remarks and instead issued a short statement about his baby’s birth: “Mother, Father and Baby are all healthy and happy. We are overjoyed.”
