Macaulay Culkin has said he never saw Michael Jackson abuse anyone and denied the singer behaved inappropriate with him.
The Home Alone star gave evidence in Jackson’s defence before the singing superstar was found not guilty of molesting a boy at a high-profile trial in 2005.
Jackson later withdrew from public life, briefly returning to the spotlight before his death on June 25 2009, and last year allegations against him resurfaced with the explosive documentary Leaving Neverland, which featured graphic interviews with two men who said the King Of Pop routinely abused them as boys.
The Michael Jackson estate, which has become increasingly lucrative for the Jackson family, dismissed the film as “yet another lurid production in an outrageous and pathetic attempt to exploit and cash in on” the late singer.
Asked if it bothers him that people assume he was also abused by Jackson, Culkin told Esquire magazine: “I’m gonna begin with the line — it’s not a line, it’s the truth: 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.
Introducing Esquire's March 2020 issue—and Mack Culkin. The peerless, former-child superstar, @IncredibleCulk, sat down with @rhdagostino for his first cover story in 15 years and answered all the questions you have about him. https://t.co/BYFEUeZsRp pic.twitter.com/hn1CqVBwFk
— Esquire (@esquire) February 11, 2020
“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; he never did anything.”
Culkin is godfather to Jackson’s daughter Paris, and they share a habit of stealing spoons from restaurants, cafes and planes.
He said: “It’s harmless. It’s a harmless thing. It’s not like you’re ruining something, like stealing a chess piece, where the board would be incomplete.”
The pair have matching spoon tattoos and Culkin revealed the advice he gave her, saying: “Don’t forget to be silly, don’t forget to take something away from this whole experience, and don’t forget to stick something up your sleeve.”
Culkin also revealed that he auditioned for Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood, the Quentin Tarantino film that won Brad Pitt an Oscar.
He said the audition did not go well, adding: “It was a disaster. I wouldn’t have hired me. I’m terrible at auditioning anyway, and this was my first audition in like eight years.”