Rarely do we have celebrities come out and say, “Yes, it wasn’t amicable. I fucked up.” Well,
that’s exactly what Mila Kunis did when she finally opened up about her long-term relationship
with Macaulay Culkin. In today’s video, we’ll tell you all about the couple’s homey romance
and a terrible breakup, including Mila saying if she was actually ever in love with her ex.
Although the details around their first meeting are unknown, it’s safe to assume that the former
lovebirds most likely met in Hollywood through mutual friends. Mila started dating everyone’s
favourite mischievous kid in 2002. Both were still very young — 18 and 21, respectively.
Culkin met Kunis during a period in which he had, quote, “decided to be abstinent or asexual
or whatever,” following his divorce from Rachel Miner. Clearly, the universe had other plans.
They started out long-distance, as she was in LA, and he was in NY. Macaulay was already
semi-retired from acting, and Mila was on the opposite trajectory — just starting to gain
recognition as the “it-girl” in That ’70s Show. Likely made wary by their experiences in the
public eye, the couple kept their romance incredibly private despite
constant media speculation. And just a year later, Culkin had to publicly clarify that
he and Kunis were not engaged. “I have a very, very beautiful,
very wonderful relationship with somebody. We’re not engaged. We’re not getting married,”
he told Barbara Walters at the time. Kunis herself later joked about their
phantom engagement. “I’ve been engaged. I think I’ve already been married. And I’m
sure I have a child somewhere. I’m waiting to have something else happen,” she teased.
For a couple of years ahead, the stars seemed to enjoy their quiet nights at home.
They were just like us. The youngsters would read books, play video games, watch TV and cook.
At 20-something, they were settled. “I love coming home, taking a bath and having a glass
of wine. I love my life,” Mila said. She couldn’t stop gushing about her boyfriend,
saying Macaulay was probably the most brilliant person she’s ever met, describing him as “so,
so smart and so aware and so kind and so sweet.” In 2009, Mila even opened up about the
relationship, talking about how they grew up together as child actors in the spotlight
and relied on one another for emotional support. “You find a steady rock in your
life and that’s all you need. We have our ups and downs, but work through them.”
But even then, they weren’t sleeping in a bed of roses. Mila didn’t shy away from
talking about how dating someone with such a famous face complicated things at times.
Having the most dramatic reaction to seeing him, fans made it hard for the
couple to even take a walk undisturbed. They would, quote, “just scream when they saw him.”
They just didn’t know how to react. It wasn’t like a normal response to a celebrity.
Kieran Culkin also said his brother was constantly “harassed on the street” as a child star.
“One time, a woman pulled off his hat and looked at him and said,
‘Yeah, it’s him! You’re not that cute.’ And then handed the hat back and walked away.”
The couple did their best to work through their challenges. And while Mila and Macaulay
were still dating, there were rumours of them getting hitched, but Mila denied this. In fact,
at the time, the young actor insisted that marriage was not necessary for her.
And in 2011, when the up-and-coming actor was promoting her critically acclaimed
role in Black Swan, her relationship with Macaulay was announced as officially over.
The general line was that the split was amicable and that the two remained close friends.
A year later, Kunis assured Elle UK that the relationship had remained a
positive experience in her eyes and even helped to shape her identity.
“Being settled so young really helped,” she said. “I wouldn’t take back anything
in my life, not one thing. I think it all shaped me to be who I am today.”
Two years later, during an episode of Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast,
Kunis shocked everyone when she admitted what a “horrible, horrible” breakup they had with Culkin.
“I was an asshole in my 20s, and I’ll be the first to admit it. ‘Yeah, you know what, I was a dick.’”
However, it took her a long time to admit to herself first, accept it, own it,
and then share it with the rest of the world. She didn’t say what she did to her former beau
but insisted, “It’s fucked up what I did, and it’s fucked up how I did it.” When she became single,
Mila genuinely wanted to figure herself out to know why she did what she did and, quote,
“regroup myself as a human being.” Soon after spilling the breakup tea,
Kunis said that she and Culkin were probably not as friendly as they could be. Apparently,
there are too many things that just prevented them from ever moving forward from the past.
In 2016, Howard Stern asked the actor if she was actually in love with her ex,
to which she replied, “Honestly, who knows? I just don’t know.” Aww, how sad.
While Kunis has been willing to discuss her mistakes during her lengthy relationship with
Culkin, he has remained tight-lipped. Macaulay, who is notoriously private, has never opened up
about the nearly decade-long relationship or how the end of it affected his well-being.
The two have each moved on with their lives since then and have not remained friends.
However, when Shepard asked her if she had forgiven herself,
Mila went on to say she and Macaulay have no hard feelings any more.
“You know, it’s been so long, I feel like enough time has gone by. I think
enough mutual friends have been like, everybody kind of forgave everybody for what went down.”
Ultimately, Mila’s admission was about both holding herself accountable for her immaturity in
the relationship, and showing herself forgiveness. People don’t often put the two together,
but Mila was onto something when she chose to own her less-than-respectable behaviour publicly.
Holding yourself accountable without forgiving yourself only prolongs the pain,
while forgiving yourself without allowing for accountability is equally problematic. It may
have taken some time, but Mila’s move to address her long-ago breakup was a very positive one.
Although Mila never specified what she did to Macaulay that was so “horrible,” her relationship
with Ashton doesn’t seem to have overlapped with her relationship with Macaulay, so the
USUAL cheating rumours haven’t held much weight. While it’s true that Mila and Ashton began dating
not long after they both broke up with their previous partners, she has revealed that the
night she and Ashton became involved romantically, he had actually tried to set her up on a blind
date. The guy never showed up at the house party they were at, and, well, the rest is history.
Ultimately, it seems both Mila and Macaulay have long since recovered from the trauma inflicted
by their difficult breakup and have moved on to happier relationships. Mila with Ashton Kutcher,
of course, whom she started dating in 2012. They welcomed daughter Wyatt in 2014, wed in 2015, and
welcomed son Dimitri the following year. Macaulay started dating Disney actor Brenda Song in 2017.
The couple had a baby boy earlier this year. They named him after Culkin’s late sister, Dakota.
However, before he could move on with Brenda, Macaulay was fighting major trust issues,
having lived through his share of ups and downs. Since becoming a household name at ten,
the actor has struggled with fame, his family’s trials and tribulations and numerous losses,
including the death of his two sisters. Eventually, he’s grown up and become
“relatively well-adjusted.” He’s started a media company called Bunny Ears, bought a
home and become a self-professed “homebody.” “People assume that I’m crazy, or a kook,
or damaged. And up until the last year or two, I haven’t really put myself out there at all. So,
I can understand that,” he said. And at the same time, Culkin would appreciate if people stopped,
quote, “acting so freaking shocked that I’m relatively well-adjusted.
It’s no surprise that he put up a barrier, but he shouldn’t have worried about misconceptions with
the future mother of his son. Brenda decided to draw her own conclusions. “People don’t realize
how incredibly kind and loyal and sweet and smart he is,” she said. Looking beyond the headlines,
she took time to discover who he really is. And the rest is history.
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