Kieran Culkin was a famous face long before his acclaimed performance in HBO’s Succession, and he has a history in the industry that spans back to childhood.
He starred alongside his brother Macaulay Culkin in the iconic 1990 film Home Alone and its sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. His other notable film credits include Scott Pilgrim vs the World and Father of the Bride. He made waves more recently as Roman Roy in the HBO series Succession, embodying a character that fans of the show have loved to hate.
Away from the cameras, Kieran leads a remarkably different life from the reprehensible Roman. He opts for simplicity, embracing a modest existence with his loved ones.
Until recently, the celebrity has lived in a compact one-bedroom New York apartment, only just leaving for a larger place to better suit his expanding family, reports the Mirror.
Tiny New York home
For years, Kieran owned a one-bedroom flat in New York, acquired at an early age of 19. Now 42, the actor recently transitioned to a more spacious three-bedroom home within the city, considering the needs of his growing family.
On Radio X in December 2023, he talked about his unusual living situation, telling show host Chris Moyles: “Eventually friends kept telling us ‘You know you’re going to have to give that kid its own room’. We have a one-bedroom apartment, there’s, what, the kitchen? I don’t know, where does it go?”
He added: “So eventually the kid took our bedroom and then my wife – who was pregnant the second time while we were shooting through the pandemic we’re sleeping on a mattress on the living room floor because the baby has the bedroom.”
“She at one point turns to me and she goes, ‘You see how we live, right? You know you’re on a hit TV show, right?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah alright we’ll move, we’ll move!'”
Famous wife and family
Kieran, who has seven siblings, has been married to Londoner Jazz Charton since 2013. The celebrity duo shares two children named Kinsey Sioux and Wilder Wolf.
Jazz boasts a credit in the 2013 short film Likeness featuring Elle Fanning, and she also contributes to the Financial Times as a columnist.
The couple’s love story began in a New York bar back in 2012 with Jazz was employed by an advertising firm at the time. Kieran humorously recounted their initial interaction to The Hollywood Reporter, stating that after he learned her name, he called it ‘f****** stupid’.
Recounting how their romance began, he shared: “I said ‘I’m Kieran. You have an English accent. What’s your name?’. She said ‘Jazz.’ I said ‘J-A-Z-Z, like the music? ‘ And she said, ‘Yeah.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s f****** stupid.'”
Despite the unusual start, they connected instantly. Kieran asked if “I could be her boyfriend”, setting the stage for a lasting romance.
Family tragedy
Kieran’s half-sister, Jennifer Adamson, tragically died from a drug overdose in 2000 when she was only 29. His elder sister, Dakota Culkin, also met an untimely end in 2008, losing her life in a car accident at the same age.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2021, Kieran shared his ongoing grief: “I still weep about it out of nowhere. Something funny she [Dakota] did will pop in the head and make me laugh, and then I’m weeping.”
In honour of their late sister, Kieran’s brother Macaulay Culkin named his firstborn son Dakota.