YouTubeIf there’s one thing the world can’t stop being fascinated with, it’s the fall of a child star.
Whether they’re embarking on 55-hour marriages, shaving their head, or checking into rehab and psychiatric wards, people just can’t seem to get enough.
And one of the most talked about has to be Macaulay Culkin.
By the age of 12, Home Alone, Uncle Buck, My Girl and Richie Rich had made him the most successful child actor of all time. At 14, he became legally emancipated from his parents after they had tried to gain control of his $17 million (£12.9m) fortune in their divorce, the Guardian reports. Sleepovers with Michael Jackson became public knowledge, and at 17, he was married. Shortly after that, drug rumours started pouring in.
GettyIn 2012, a U.S. magazine reported that the former child star’s drug habit was costing him around $1,500 (£1,140) every week. Apparently, the friend who sold the story on him claimed he was doing so to help him and to encourage him to seek help.
But now, Culkin has branded the allegations as false and said that helping him was never part of the agenda.
When asked if fans had a right to be worried in the past, he told the Guardian:
Not necessarily. I was not pounding six grand worth of heroin every month or whatever.
The thing that bugged me was tabloids wrapping it all in this weird guise of concern. No, you’re trying to shift papers.
20th Century FoxSo there you have it, Macaulay may have been doing drugs, but he wasn’t blowing his entire fortune on them.
His infamous fall peaked in 2004 after he was arrested for possession of marijuana, Xanax and clonazepam. After that, he abandoned acting and toured with comedy rock bad Pizza Underground, the Daily Star reports.
He only returned to acting last year to make a short film revealing what happened to Kevin after Home Alone – and it’s pretty dark (but also kind of hilarious).
YouTubeHe’s also returned to film a commercial with Compare the Market – which is much more lighthearted.
Either way, the most infamous child star fall has finally been addressed – and it wasn’t as bad as we thought.
Addressing growing up in the limelight, Culkin added: “It’s allowed me to become the person I am, and I like me, so I wouldn’t change a thing.”
