The Culkin Family TRIUMPH OVER TRAUMA

Despite childhood struggles and a tragic loss, famous brothers Kieran and Macaulay Culkin are thriving

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Kieran Culkin knows what everyone thinks of his family. “My mom used to say when I was a kid, ‘How come whenever there’s a script about a dysfunctional family they always come to us?’ ” he told Entertainment Weekly on the Oscars red carpet on March 2, before going on to win the Best Supporting Actor trophy for A Real Pain (a movie about generational trauma). “But also,” he quipped, “what’s a functional family?”

His was certainly an unorthodox upbringing. He and his six siblings – Shane, 48, Dakota, who was tragically killed when she was hit by a car at age 29 in 2008, Macaulay, 44, Quinn, 40, Christian, 37, and Rory, 35 — were raised by their father, Kit, and mother, Patricia Brentrup, in a tiny apartment on NYC’s Upper East Side. The kids, who all worked as actors at some point, continued to live in cramped quarters together even after Mac became a superstar from 1990’s Home Alone (in which Kieran also had a part). “They’ll always be bonded by the incredibly unique childhood they had,” a source says of the siblings. “And they’ve stayed close as a family.”