Macaulay Culkin says Catherine O’Hara’s January death hit him hard, explaining he felt he owed her a favor and didn’t want to leave their “unfinished business” behind.
Macaulay Culkin didn’t hide the weight Catherine O’Hara’s death carried for him—especially because he believed there was something left unsettled between them.
In a recent interview with Gentleman’s Journal. Culkin looked back on the moment he learned O’Hara had died in January.. “When Catherine passed away in January… that hit me pretty good, ’cause, you know, it was just too soon.. And I felt that we had unfinished business… I feel like I owed her a favour — and I don’t like having an outstanding debt. ” the former child star said.
O’Hara played Kate McCallister, the mother of Culkin’s Kevin McCallister, in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Culkin’s comments make that on-screen bond feel newly personal—one he revisited while speaking about grief that he clearly still carries.
He also reflected on the pattern that comes with being a child actor. saying goodbye happens earlier than it does for most people.. “I’m not the tip of the sphere.. I’m the b*** of the sphere.. I’m the caboose.. I’m bringing up some of that old Hollywood guard kind of thing — I’m going to be one of the last people standing when it comes to that kind of stuff. ” he said.
Catherine O’Hara died on January 30 due to a pulmonary embolism, with rectal cancer being the underlying cause.. When he took to Instagram to pay tribute at the time, Culkin wrote: “Mama.. 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.. I love you.. I’ll see you later.”
That same closeness had been evident years earlier, too.. When Culkin was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2023. O’Hara spoke about him during her speech. calling him “this beautiful. dear little 10-year-old boy” who was labeled “one of the hottest leading young men in Hollywood by the world over.” She asked. “How does anyone survive that?”
She then tied Culkin’s personality to the role that made him famous. saying his sense of humor was a “gift” recognized by Home Alone writer-producer John Hughes when he cast the young actor.. “From what I see. you have brought this sweet. yet twisted. yet totally relatable sense of humor to everything that you have chosen to do since Home Alone. ” she added.. Culkin was already in tears by the time she reached the closer. where she thanked him for including her at the ceremony: “Thank you for including me — your fake mom who left you home alone not once. but twice — to share in this happy occasion.. I’m so proud of you.”
The thread running through Culkin’s words is pretty direct: he links O’Hara’s January death to a sense that “unfinished business” remained. and he backs that feeling with how he previously framed their relationship publicly—both in the tribute he posted after her passing and in the way she talked about him at the 2023 Walk of Fame ceremony.
Culkin’s reaction puts a finer point on the loss: for him, it isn’t only that O’Hara is gone, but that he believed there was still more to settle with her—more time, more conversation, and, as he put it, no debt left outstanding.
Macaulay Culkin Catherine O’Hara Home Alone Home Alone 2 Kevin McCallister Kate McCallister Gentleman’s Journal Hollywood Walk of Fame John Hughes pulmonary embolism rectal cancer Instagram tribute