He attributes Song as being the reason for changing his outlook on Father’s Day after years of struggling with it because of his own relationship with his father, Christopher “Kit” Culkin.
“If you know a little about me, then you’d know I’ve had a complicated relationship with Father’s Day in the past,” Culkin wrote in his Instagram caption.
He wrote how his own relationship with his father was not easy and thus he decided to “reinvent the wheel” when he started his own family with 36-year-old Song. “Other than getting an hour or two of extra sleep, I try to make the day a celebration of my boys more than me,” the Home Alone wrote in his caption. “After all, they are the ones who made me a father (no offense to Brenda),” the 43-year-old actor added.
“In our house Father’s Day isn’t held in as high regard as birthdays or Christmas but it does mop the floor of such holidays as 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. It’s a special day,” he shared.
“Father’s Day isn’t for me,” he said, “it’s for the people that make me feel like a father.”
The former child star has not made it a secret that things with his own father were strained for him growing up. He has shared previously how when he started to become more famous as a child, his father (who was also his manager) started to make unreasonable demands of him.
“I was making God-knows-how-much money, and Kit was making me sleep on the couch, just because he could,” Culkin said in a 2001 interview. “Just to let you know who’s in charge and just to let you know if he doesn’t want you to sleep in a bed, you’re not going to sleep in a bed.”
In a 2018 conversation with Marc Maron, Culkin shared that his father had been abusive “even before the fame stuff.” He alleged that his father was “physically and mentally” abusive, especially after he developed a resentment at Culkin’s successful career.
“He was jealous,” he explained. “Everything that he tried to do in his life I excelled at before I was 10 years old.”
Culkin famously emancipated himself from his parents when he was 16 years old. The actor also started legal proceedings against them for handling his $17 million fortune. A Manhattan Supreme Court judge placed the Culkin family’s former attorney, Billy Breitner, in charge of the actor’s money until he became 18 years old.
Culkin and Song first became linked in 2018 and welcomed their first child, their son Dakota, in 2021. The couple welcomed their second son in 2022. They have not publicly revealed the name of their second child.
In 2018, he was on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and when asked if he wants children, he said, “I’m gonna make some babies,” Culkin said. He went on, “This one’s a good one, so I’m probably going to put some babies in her in a little bit. I mean, we’ve definitely been practicing.”
When Culkin received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last December, he shared in an interview that his kids’ presence at the event was “the whole reason to do this.”
“It’s the reason pretty much to do anything now,” he said. “We always talk about how we don’t remember our life before our kids — it’s a dream or a distant kind of concept, not a reality. I love the fact that my boys can come here and see a dog pee on my name.”
He also adores his partner. In his speech when receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he said, “Lastly, but not leastly, I’d like to thank Brenda. You are absolutely everything. You’re my champion. You’re the only person happier for me today than I am.”
