People forget. It sounds like a fever dream now, but for nearly a decade, the girl from That '70s Show and the kid from Home Alone were the most solid couple in Hollywood. They weren't just "dating." They were a unit. From 2002 until 2011, Mila Kunis and Macaulay Culkin were basically inseparable, living a life that was surprisingly domestic for two of the most famous people on the planet.
They cooked. They played World of Warcraft. They hid.
But then it ended. And honestly, the way it ended stayed a mystery for years until Mila finally spilled the tea on what actually went down. It wasn't just a "scheduling conflict" or "growing apart." According to Mila, it was much messier than the public ever realized.
The Eight-Year Ghost Story
When they started dating, Mila was just 18. Macaulay was 21. Think about that for a second. You spend your entire twenties with one person while the rest of the world is screaming your name. Macaulay wasn't just a celebrity; he was a phenomenon. Mila later told Howard Stern that walking down the street with him was a nightmare.
"Fans just screamed," she recalled. People didn't just want an autograph; they had this "abnormal" reaction to him.
Because of that intensity, they retreated. They became homebodies. They stayed in and lived a life that felt "extraordinarily ordinary," despite the millions in the bank. Mila once called him her "steady rock." In a world where every young star was falling apart at the seams, they seemed like the only ones who had it figured out.
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Then 2011 hit.
The official statement from her rep was the usual Hollywood fluff: "The split was amicable, and they remain close friends."
Spoiler: They didn't.
Why the Mila Kunis and Macaulay Culkin Breakup Was "Horrible"
Fast forward to 2018. Mila sits down with Dax Shepard on his Armchair Expert podcast and finally drops the mask. She didn't hold back.
"I had a horrible, horrible, horrible breakup," she said. And then she did something celebrities almost never do. She took the blame. Total accountability.
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"I fked up. I was an ahole in my 20s and I'll be the first to admit it."
She didn't give the gory details of the "how," but she was clear that she was the one who blew it up. She described herself as a "dk" and said the way she handled the split was "fked up." It wasn't just that they stopped loving each other; it was that the exit strategy was handled with the grace of a wrecking ball.
It took her years to forgive herself. She spent two years being single just to figure out why she did what she did. She needed to "regroup as a human being." That's heavy stuff for a Hollywood gossip story.
Were They Ever Friends After?
Not really. Even though the initial press release said they were "close friends," Mila later admitted on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast that they aren't exactly grabbing coffee.
"We're probably not as friendly as we could be," she admitted. There was just too much baggage. Too many things happened during that final stretch that made "moving forward from the past" impossible.
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The Aftermath: Different Paths to Happiness
The weirdest thing about looking back at Mila Kunis and Macaulay Culkin is how perfectly they both ended up with other people.
Mila, of course, found her way back to Ashton Kutcher. It’s the ultimate rom-com ending. They played love interests on TV as teenagers, went their separate ways for years, and then found each other when they were both "grown-ups." They’re now the gold standard for celebrity marriages, raising two kids and staying relatively low-key.
Macaulay found his match in Brenda Song. It's almost poetic—another former child star who understands the specific trauma and weirdness of growing up in front of a camera. They have two children now, and Macaulay seems more at peace than he ever did during the height of the paparazzi era.
What We Can Learn From Their Story
If you're looking for a takeaway from the whole Mila Kunis and Macaulay Culkin saga, it's probably about the messiness of growing up. Most of us do stupid things in our twenties. We break hearts. We handle endings poorly.
The difference is we don't have to talk about it on a podcast ten years later.
Mila’s honesty is actually kind of refreshing. It’s a reminder that:
- Time doesn't fix everything, but it provides perspective. You can't always be friends with an ex, and that's okay.
- Owning your mistakes is the only way to move on. Mila couldn't get to the Ashton chapter until she dealt with the fallout of the Macaulay chapter.
- Privacy is a choice. They proved you can have a long-term relationship in Hollywood without being on every magazine cover if you're willing to stay home and play video games.
Next Steps for You:
If you're going through a rough split or looking back at a "messy" past relationship, take a page out of Mila’s book. Acknowledge where you messed up, do the work to figure out why, and give yourself permission to move into your next chapter. You don't have to be "friends" with everyone from your past to be a healthy person today.