Macaulay Culkin Defends Michael Jackson: ‘He Never Did Anything To Me’

Actor Macaulay Culkin has opened up about his past relationship with singer Michael Jackson.

“Look,” he said in an interview with Esquire,. “I’m gonna begin with the line—it’s not a line, it’s the truth: he never did anything to me.” 

Culkin and Jackson share a long history and close friendship. Jackson got in contact with Culkin after Home Alone was released. The two formed a bond very quickly and suddenly they were hanging out on the regular, despite the twenty-two year age difference.

The former child star understands the public’s interest in his friendship with Jackson but has insisted it was pretty normal.

“I never saw him do anything. And especially at this flashpoint in time, I’d have no reason to hold anything back,” the star tells the magazine.

In 2005, Culkin defended Jackson for the People v. Jackson criminal trial in which the singer was charged with intoxicating and molesting a thirteen-year-old boy who had cancer. He was eventually acquitted. Additionally, Culkin is the godfather to Jackson’s daughter, Paris Jackson, and they remain close.

In 2019, the documentary, Leaving Neverland, was released on Netflix. The film focuses on two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who allege that they were sexually abused as children by Jackson. The documentary had a negative impact on Jackson’s posthumous reputation and the massive business of his estate.

According to the interview, actor James Franco expressed curiosity in Culkin’s reaction to the documentary. The two had an awkward interaction after running into eachother on a plane.

“It was right after the documentary (Leaving Neverland) came out, and he goes, ‘So, that documentary!’ … I was like, ‘Uh-huh.’ Silence. So then he goes, ‘So what do you think?’ And I turned to him and I go, ‘Do you wanna talk about your dead friend?’ And he sheepishly went, ‘No, I don’t.’ So I said, ‘Cool, man, it was nice to meet you.”