Macaulay Culkin on “Unfinished Business” with Beloved “Home Alone” Mom Catherine O’Hara

Macaulay Culkin has further opened up about the recent loss of Catherine O’Hara , who played his on-screen mother in the Home Alone movies. In a recent interview with Gentleman’s Journal , Culkin spoke about feeling like they had “unfinished business.”

“When Catherine passed away in January, that hit me,” he said. “That hit me pretty good, ’cause, you know, it was just too soon. And I felt that we had unfinished business. I definitely feel like I had unfinished business with her, you know? I feel like I owed her a favor — and I don’t like having an outstanding debt.”

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Culkin and O’Hara had reconnected in recent years. In December 2023, she praised her on-screen son during his star unveiling on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: “Macaulay — this beautiful, dear little 10-year-old boy — was called a superstar, a moneymaker, one of the hottest leading young men in Hollywood by the world over. How does anyone survive that?”

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O’Hara continued, “Well, I believe you’d have to possess a certain quality, a gift that dear [writer-producer] John Hughes obviously recognized in you, Macaulay: your sense of humor. It’s a sign of intelligence in a child, and a key to surviving life at any age. And 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 .”

O’Hara passed away in late January following a private battle with cancer. After receiving news of her death, Culkin shared an emotional tribute saying, “I thought we had time.”

Editor’s Note: Read our breakdown of O’Hara’s 10 best roles .

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_Originally reported by [Consequence](https://consequence.net/2026/05/macaulay-culkin-catherine-ohara-unfinished-business/)._