Macaulay Culkin breaks silence on Michael Jackson friendship: “He never did anything to me”
12 February 2020, 10:33
Macaulay Culkin has spoken in depth about his friendship with Michael Jackson, insisting he has nothing to ”speak up about” in relation to the late singer.
The former child star was friends with Michael Jackson from around the age of nine, at the height of his Home Alone-fuelled fame.
Culkin also testified at Jackson’s child molestation trial in 2003, and described the allegations against him “absolutely ridiculous”.
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He also defended the late singer in 2019, saying: “[Michael] reached out to me because a lot of things were happening, big and fast with me and I think he identified with that.
“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. At the end of the day, we were friends.”
In a new interview with Esquire, Culkin has defended Jackson again, following fresh allegations of sexual abuse in the documentary Leaving Neverland.
”He never did anything to me. I never saw him do anything. And especially at this flashpoint in time, I’d have no reason to hold anything back,” he said.
”The guy has passed on. If anything – I’m not gonna say it would be stylish or anything like that, but right now is a good time to speak up. And if I had something to speak up about, I would totally do it. But no, I never saw anything.”
Culkin admitted that after the release of Leaving Neverland, several people questioned his friendship with Jackson.
He said: “Here’s a good Michael Jackson story that doesn’t involve Michael Jackson at all: I ran into James Franco on a plane. I’d bumped into him two or three times over the years. I give him a little nod as we’re putting our bags overhead. ‘Hey, how you doing?’ he said. ‘Good, how ya doing?’
“And it was right after the Leaving Neverland documentary came out, and he goes, ‘So, that documentary!’ And that was all he said.
“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 see you.'”
Wade Robson and James Safechuck accused Michael Jackson of sexually abusing them when they children in the documentary.
Jackson's estate and family have denied all allegations against him.
