Macaulay Culkin legally took parents’ name as off trust fund with $50 million in bank as child star
Macaulay Culkin is easily one of the most extraordinary child stars who has ever lived and he was paid very handsomely for offering up his talents - however, as a kid, he wasn't the one in control of his cash.
It was his parents who held the power over his multimillion dollar earnings, which didn't sit well with the actor.
He spent his teenage years trying to find a way to remove their names from his trust fund which reportedly had an eye watering $50 million stowed away in it.
Bizarrely, Culkin didn't have any idea about this jaw-dropping figure until his father, Kit Culkin, and mother, Patricia Brentrup, were no longer in charge of it.
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As film fans will be well aware, the 43-year-old achieved incredible success in Hollywood when he was just a schoolboy after starring in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
He only raked in $100,000 for his iconic role in the first film, but he received a bumper payday the second time round to star in its sequel, which totalled up to around $4.5 million.
Culkin would then went on to star in a plethora of hit movies, such as My Girl, The Good Son, The Nutcracker, Getting Even with Dad, The Pagemaster and Ritchie Rich.
After a decade in show business, he decided to step away from the spotlight to take a break from acting at the age of 14.
Although you would think this allowed him to bask in the fruits of his labour throughout his teenage years, you'd be dead wrong, he couldn't get his hands on any of his cash.
All of the money he had earned over the years was placed into a trust fund by his parents, who were also his managers. The couple ended up pocketing around 15% of their son's earnings per film.
It all came to ahead when Kit and Patricia parted ways in 1995
Following their split, the couple were embroiled in a bitter legal battle over who would get custody of their seven kids, as well as what would happen to Culkin's fortune.
The Changeland star, 43, later revealed that he and his siblings 'didn't want to go with' their father and he accused Kit of being 'physically and mentally' abusive to him throughout his childhood.
While the court showdown over the kids and Culkin's cash was raging, the actor revealed that his mother could not afford to pay their rent as she was using all her money on lawyer fees - despite her son having millions stowed away.
So, Culkin ended up taking drastic action to remedy the situation.
He decided to remove both of his parents from his trust fund so that he could access the dosh, whilst bringing in an executor to handle it from there on out - rather than 'divorcing' his mum and dad, like reports have often claimed.
In a previous interview with Esquire, Culkin explained: "Basically, I had millions and millions of dollars in the bank and my mother couldn’t pay the rent because she was spending all of her money on lawyers.
"We were about to get evicted from our apartment. The only way I could get access to that money was to take my father’s name off it, but I didn’t want to make it messy, so I figured I’d take both their names off.
"It’s always misconstrued, that I ‘emancipated’ myself from my parents," the star continued.
"I legally took my parents’ names off of my trust fund and found an executor, someone who would look over my finances, just in case anyone wanted to stick their f**king pinkie in the pie.
"But the next thing you know, the story was that I divorced my parents.
"I just thought I was doing it cleanly - taking my father’s name off, taking my mom’s name off, so my opinion is unbiased. "And when I did that, the whole thing kinda ended a lot faster."
Culkin has been estranged from his father - who remarried after moving to the West Coast - ever since.
"For now, my opinion is, the farther away he is the better when it comes to, like, everything," he said of Kit.
Topics: Macaulay Culkin, TV and Film, Parenting, Money, Celebrity
Olivia Burke