Macaulay Culkin Opens Up About Friendship With Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson’s experience with childhood stardom ultimately led him to have some questionable relationships with children in his later years, but one of the kids he befriended, child star Macaulay Culkin, has always appreciated what Jackson did for him during the rough years of being a kid in the spotlight.

Macaulay Culkin was 9-years-old when Home Alone made him a child star.

In an interview with podcaster Michael Rosenbaum, Culkin spoke about his affinity for Jackson when he was at the top of his child stardom.

“He reached out to me because a lot of things were happening, big and fast with me and I think he identified with that,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s almost easy to say it was weird or whatever, but it wasn’t because it made sense.”

Culkin continued, “We were friends. It’s one of my friendships that people question only because of the fact that he was the most famous person in the world.”

Michael Jackson’s personal amusement park, Neverland Ranch, was closed in 2006.

Culkin went on to talk about how Jackson understood exactly how lonely being a massive international star can be for a young kid.

“I was a peerless person, nobody at my Catholic school even had this much idea of what I was going through,” Culkin explained, “And he was the person who had been through the exact same thing and wanted to make sure I wasn’t alone.”

“He was —-ing awesome,” Culkin went on. “He was funny, he was sweet – people didn’t know how funny he was. He liked prank calling people because obviously, he was good with his voice. He was hilarious, he was charming and silly.”

Child stardom is certainly a difficult thing to deal with and Michael Jackson knew it better than anyone. That his friendship helped another child star is a positive highlight of the troubled star’s abbreviated life.