Macaulay Culkin is opening up about the loss of his longtime friend and Home Alone co-star Catherine O’Hara, admitting her death earlier this year left him feeling like there was still more left unsaid between them.
Speaking with Gentlemen’s Journal, Culkin described O’Hara’s passing in January at age 71 as something that hit him “pretty good,” adding that her death felt painfully premature.
“It was just too soon,” Culkin said. “I definitely feel like I had unfinished business with her.”
The actor explained that he still feels emotionally indebted to O’Hara, who famously played his mother Kate McCallister in the beloved Home Alone films. “I feel like I owed her a favor,” he said. “And I don’t like having an outstanding debt.”
The emotional comments reflect the unusually deep bond the two actors maintained long after filming the iconic holiday franchise that made Culkin one of the biggest child stars in the world. While many on-screen relationships fade once production wraps, Culkin and O’Hara remained close for decades.
Their connection was especially visible in 2023 when O’Hara appeared at Culkin’s Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony tribute, delivering one of the event’s most heartfelt speeches. “Home Alone was, is and always will be a beloved global sensation,” O’Hara said at the ceremony. “The reason families all over the world can’t let a year go by without watching and loving Home Alone together is because of Macaulay Culkin.”
Following O’Hara’s death earlier this year, Culkin posted a deeply personal tribute on Instagram alongside throwback photos from both the Home Alone era and the Walk of Fame ceremony. “Mama,” he wrote. “I thought we had time. I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you. But I had so much more to say.”
The actor also reflected during the interview on the increasingly strange experience of watching members of the “old Hollywood guard” disappear over time, including former co-stars like John Heard, who played Peter McCallister and died in 2017.
“I’m going to be one of the last people standing when it comes to that kind of stuff,” Culkin said.
At the same time, Culkin acknowledged how unique and isolating his life experience has been as someone who became globally famous at such a young age. “I don’t really have that many contemporaries when it comes to this stuff,” he explained. “But I try to cherish that as much as I can.”
More than three decades after Home Alone became a holiday classic, the emotional connection audiences still feel toward the McCallister family clearly remains very real for Culkin himself. And judging by his comments, losing O’Hara wasn’t simply losing a co-star. It was losing someone who genuinely felt like family.
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