Kieran Culkin Reminds Wife She Promised Him 4th Child If He Won An Oscar During Academy Award Acceptance Speech

Hyoju AnMarch 4, 2025, 1:15 pmNews >

Kieran Culkin made sure to remind his wife of a long-standing promise during his unforgettable Oscars acceptance speech on Sunday night.

The Succession star won his first-ever Oscar at the 97th Academy Awards for his role as Benji Kaplan in A Real Pain, marking his first nomination and victory. The film, written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, follows two estranged cousins reconnecting during a journey through Poland to honor their late grandmother.

True to form, Culkin mixed gratitude with humor in his speech, taking the opportunity to bring up a deal he had made with his wife, Jazz Charton, about expanding their family.

“Please don’t play the music, because I want to tell a really quick story about Jazz,” Culkin began. He then recalled a conversation from the previous year when he expressed wanting a third child.

“A year ago, I said that I wanted a third kid, because she said if I won the award, she would give me the kid. Turns out she said that because she didn’t think I was going to win.”

He continued, “Anyway, after the [Emmy] show, we’re walking through a parking lot. She’s holding the Emmy and she goes, ‘Oh, god, I did say that. I guess I owe you a third kid.’”

Culkin then revealed how he upped the stakes. “I turned to her and said, ‘Really, I want four.’ And she turned to me—I swear to god this happened—and said, ‘I will give you four when you win an Oscar.'”

As the audience erupted in laughter, Culkin delivered his punchline: “I held my hand out, she shook it and I have not brought it up once until just now. You remember that, honey?”

Turning to Charton in the crowd, he continued, “Then I just have to say to you, Jazz, love of my life, ye of little faith—no pressure.”

He closed with an affectionate plea: “I love you. I’m really sorry I did this again. And let’s get cracking on those kids. What do you say?”

Culkin and Charton, who married in 2013, currently share two children.