Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song discussed their famously low-key romance in their first ever joint interview this week.
The Home Alone star, 44, and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody actress, 36, who are notoriously private, posed for a loved-up shoot for Cosmopolitan’s History Making Love Issue, where they talked about the key to their successful romance and plans for their wedding.
The pair said they took pride in the fact fans didn’t realize they were together and had a family, with Macaulay quipping: ‘That the public is like, “Wait, they’re together and they have kids?’ Good. That means we did our job.”’
The couple – who got engaged three years ago – said they don’t feel pressure for a big wedding, with Song saying: ‘I was like, ‘If we eloped, my mom would have a heart attack that she wasn’t going to be there.’
Culkin responded: ‘I wouldn’t even!’
Quipping about a future wedding after a decade long romance and two children together, Culkin said: ‘Do you not want to marry me?’ with Song responding: ‘I’m fine if we don’t. I just want to know.’
Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song discussed their famously low-key romance in their first ever joint interview this week
Song said her romance with Culkin had even shocked her at first – after they first connected at actor Seth Green’s house after Dads, Seth and Brenda’s short-lived FOX sitcom, got canceled:
The Home Alone star, 44 , and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody actress, 36, who are notoriously private, posed for a loved-up shoot for Cosmopolitan’s History Making Love Issue, where they talked about the key to their successful romance and plans for their wedding
She said: ‘He was trying to be funny about our show being canceled and I was not having it’ with Culkin responding: ‘She was thoroughly unimpressed by me is what I will say.’
‘There was a point in time where I was like, “I must be in a simulation! I have two children with Macaulay Culkin!”’
Song said reading Culkin’s journals a few years after they met made her see a different side to him: ‘I saw this person he put out there—it was a product of this armor that he’s put on to protect himself.
‘But I could see that that wasn’t really who he was; I could see these glimpses of this really interesting, very sensitive, very intelligent, artistic person that he doesn’t really let show.’
Crediting the couple’s unwavering support for one another for the success of their romance, Culkin said to Song: ‘I got your back no matter what. I’ll do whatever you say you want to do….I want the things that you want. I’m in this to the end, to the very end.’
Discussing falling in love with Song, he said: ‘I’d never felt this way before. I believed in her. I mean, I believed in people before, but I believed in her down to my bone marrow. You know what I mean? I put it behind the armor though, behind that shield.’
Song said: ‘I’ve had to hustle my entire life being an Asian American actress in Hollywood. I’ve just always had to be very proactive. But [turning to Mack] I feel like you help me chill out, and I help bring out that [fire] in you.’
Culkin in turn said: ‘Brenda is encouraging in a way I’d never been encouraged before.’
The pair recreated John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1981 Rolling Stone cover for the shoot
The couple – who got engaged three years ago – said they don’t feel pressure for a big wedding, with Song saying: ‘ I was like, ‘If we eloped, my mom would have a heart attack that she wasn’t going to be there’ – pictured with son Dakota in December 2023
The pair said they wanted to shoot the very rare cover for their sons – pictured with their youngest son in December 2023
The pair said they wanted to shoot the very rare cover for their sons. In April of 2021, the couple welcomed their first child, Dakota. They named their son, who’s now three, after Macaulay’s sister Dakota, who was tragically killed in 2008 when a driver hit her while she was crossing a street.
Their second son, two-year-old Carson, followed in December 2022.
The couple have been an item since the summer of 2017, when they played supporting roles in the dramedy Changeland.
At the time, Brenda had just gotten out of an on–off relationship with Trace Cyrus, while Culkin had been married to the actress Rachel Miner in the late ’90s and early 2000s, and had later dated Mila Kunis from 2002 to 2011.
The costars struck up a relationship shortly after working together, and the two have been inseparable ever since.
The couple revealed that they were engaged when Brenda stepped out in September 2023 wearing an engagement ring.
Macaulay and Brenda set off speculation that they had tied the knot when she was spotted wearing what looked like a wedding band on the same finger with her engagement ring in December of that year, but the two have never confirmed the possible marriage.
The pair are both iconic child stars – Culkin is pictured as Kevin McAllister in Home Alone in 1990
Song is seen as London Tipton in The Suite Life Of Zack and Cody with Cole & Dylan Sprouse in 2005
Notably, Brenda only wore her engagement ring without an extra band when she took in the Lakers game, while Macaulay oddly wore two gold bands, one each on his right index and middle fingers.
The two opted to leave their kids home for their date night in the city, and Brenda revealed in January 2022 while chatting with The Cut that she and her fiancé had chosen not to get a nanny, unlike many other Hollywood stars.
Instead, they did their best to cut down on their schedules in order to spend time with their two young children, and Brenda’s mother helped out with babysitting when they couldn’t be there with the kids.
