Her sons are among the most recognizable actors in show business: Home Alone star Macaulay and recent Oscar-winner Kieran Culkin.
And both have made millions from their very different screen careers.
Yet their ailing mother Patricia Brentrup, 70, is living a world apart, strapped for cash and in need of caregiving help in her modest, one-story ranch-style home across the street from a junkyard on the outskirts of Billings, Montana -–where visits from her famous sons are few and far between.
As one inside source tells DailyMail.com, the mother-of-seven and her husband Mart Cox ‘are poor and struggling to get by.’
‘They’re both 70 years old and retired,’ the source added. ‘The paychecks aren’t coming in anymore. They’re having a hard time right now. It’s tough.’
The couple is described as living ‘the simple life’ – without cell phones or Internet access – along with two dogs and four horses kept on the 11-acre property.
While the brothers live well after raking in millions, ailing mother Patricia Brentrup, 70, is living a world apart, in a modest, one-story ranch-style home on the outskirts of Billings, Montana – where visits from her famous sons are few and far between
Of the six surviving Culkin siblings, Kieran, 42, and Macaulay, 44, have seen the most success in showbusiness, with the younger brother winning his first Academy Award earlier this year
Kieran and Macaulay started their show business careers as children, famously acting alongside each other in Home Alone. They are pictured with mom Patricia Brentrup and father Kit Culkin in December 1990, five years before she filed for sole custody
It’s a far cry from the life of son Macaulay, 44, who has a reported net worth of $18million, and currently lives in an $8million five-bed, five-and-a-half bathroom mansion in Toluca Lake, California, with fiancée, actress Brenda Song, 37, and their sons Dakota, three, and two-year-old Carson.
Meanwhile his younger brother Kieran, 42, is estimated to be worth $5million, and reportedly lives in a three-bedroom apartment with wife Jazz Charton, 36, and their two children in New York.
But while their fortunes have soared, their mother has seen little of their riches, with only one of her sons stepping up, according to Patricia’s husband.
Macaulay gives some help, sending $1,000 monthly to help Brentrup, Cox told DailyMail.com exclusively.
However, Kieran, this year’s Oscar winner for best supporting actor in the film A Real Pain, is not offering support.
‘He never calls,’ Cox said with more than a tinge of bitterness. ‘I don’t expect any help from him or nothing. And I am not a man who would ask.’
Patricia and Mart are described to be living ‘the simple life’, which consists of a landline telephone, local TV channels, and no Internet access, along with their two dogs and four horses on their 11-acre property
Brentrup relocated to the mountain west after marrying Cox in 2011. Her health has deteriorated in recent years since she suffered a stroke and was diagnosed shortly after with Alzheimer’s disease, Cox revealed
Meanwhile, Macaulay currently lives in an $8million five-bed, five-and-a-half bathroom mansion in Toluca Lake, California, with fiancée, actress Brenda Song, 37, and their two sons
Cox was reluctant to discuss Kieran, who has praised his mom publicly, yet has had almost no contact with her since visiting a few years ago.
‘Out of sight, out of mind,’ the stepdad said.
Kieran’s last visit, he noted, came after Brentrup fell into a fire in a teepee on the Billings property and sustained severe burns.
Upon her release from the hospital a week later, Cox says he snapped at Kieran while both were trying to bandage her wounds.
‘I was talking down to him and pissed him off,’ he said.
Even with help from his daughter, Cox is finding it a struggle to care for Brentrup, his high-school sweetheart whom he married in 2011. years after she ended what insiders have described as an abusive, relationship with former actor Kit Culkin, with whom she had seven kids.
Her health has deteriorated since she suffered a stroke a few years ago and was diagnosed shortly after with Alzheimer’s disease, Cox revealed.
‘Boom, it just hit and it’s getting worse,’ he said. ‘Her mind isn’t there anymore. She has a memory of about five minutes.’
The family source told DailyMail.com: ‘The kids don’t help out at all.
‘Well, Macaulay helps a little bit. He actually brought his two kids to his mom’s house not too long ago.’
Macaulay’s turbulent relationship with his parents played out publicly in the late 1990s when the actor accused his father of being violent, amid his parents’ nasty custody battle
Brentrup split with Kit Culkin in 1995 and sought custody of the kids after their father abandoned the family earlier that year
It was Macaulay’s father Kit who tried to push all six of Macaulay’s siblings into an on screen career – but most have stayed out of the limelight Pictured: Kit and Patricia with six of their seven children in the 1990s. Back row L-R: Patricia, Kit, Shane, Dakota. Front row L-R: Macaulay, Kieran, Rory, Quinn
The former child star mentioned the recent trip during his appearance on Kate and Oliver Hudson’s Sibling Revelry podcast last month.
He said the visit to ‘Papa’s mama’ was somewhat of a yawner for his preschoolers, who complained that petting Cox’s horses was pretty much all they did.
‘[I] was like, ‘Yeah, you’re right, that’s life from Montana. Just get to pet a horse and…it’s all you got,’ Macaulay said on the podcast.
He also opened up about his estrangement from his ‘narcissistic’ and ‘abusive’ father, Kit Culkin, revealing he and most of his siblings haven’t spoken to their dad in more than 30 years.
‘One of my earliest memories of him was [thinking] “when I grow up, this is how I’m not going to be with my kids”. And now that I got kids of my own, it makes me even more, it kicks up some dust that I kinda go, “I can’t believe he was like that”,’ he said.
‘You know, he’s a man who…had seven kids and now he has four grandkids and, uh, none of them want anything to do with him.’
Macaulay (pictured with Kieran in 1991 and 2001) catapulted to stardom at the age of 10 in the first Home Alone film in 1990. Now, aged 44, he describes himself as mainly ‘retired,’ while his brother remains active and has attained mainstream success as an adult
The Culkin brothers pose for a selfie with Kieran’s wife Jazz Charton and Macaulay’s fiancée Brenda Song
Patricia and Kit never married but had a 21-year relationship that produced seven children together: Shane, 48, Macaulay, Kieran, Quinn, 40, Christian, 38, Rory, 35, and daughter Dakota, who died in 2008 at age 30 after being struck by a car.
Kit is credited with pushing his children into the limelight during their youth and had managed Macaulay’s career in the early years of his stardom.
The family’s turbulent relationship played out in public when the My Girl star took his parents to court to remove them from his trust fund when he was 15 years old.
Kieran has also publicly thrown shade on their father in the past, famously snubbing Kit during his acceptance speech at the 2024 Emmys.
The Succession star acknowledged his mother at the time, thanking Brentrup ‘for giving me life and my childhood, which was great.’
He continued praising his mother in an interview backstage, describing her as a ‘wonderful woman who took on raising seven kids in a studio apartment, by herself.’
But referring to his father he said: ‘There was a guy there – he didn’t do anything’.
Now 80 years old and believed to be living reclusively somewhere in California, Kit couldn’t be reached for comment by DailyMail.com.
One of the last major family reunions appeared to be at the Culkins’ mother Patricia’s wedding to Mart Cox in July 2011 (pictured from left to right: Shane, Christian, Macaulay, Quinn, Kieran and Rory)
Macaulay and his four younger siblings (pictured) were raised by their mother Patricia ever since she was granted sole custody in 1997 by a New York judge
Younger sister Quinn, 40, and brother Rory, 35, were seen supporting their older sibling Macaulay in 2023 when he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Brentrup ended things in the late 1990s after accusing Kit of being physically abusive, an alcoholic, and unfaithful in their relationship.
Court documents show Kit had spent weeks at a time abandoning her and their kids, even while fighting to control the fortune that Macaulay was making in movies.
Once her kids were old enough to support themselves and live on their own, Brentrup reconnected with Cox, her former beau from Catholic high school in North Dakota.
The longtime pilot for a commuter airline in Montana moved briefly to Manhattan to be with her, then headed back home because he said: ‘I couldn’t take it in the big city.’
Brentrup packed up and followed him to Billings, settling into the humble ranch-style home.
While the Culkin brothers’ fortunes have soared, their mother has seen little of their riches, DailyMail.com can reveal. She is pictured with son Rory in 2002
A source revealed to DailyMail.com that the Culkin siblings rarely visit their mom in Montana (Quinn is pictured here with Patricia in 2017)
A source revealed to DailyMail.com that Patricia and Mart, both 70, are ‘broke’ and not getting any paychecks since retiring
Besides her husband, she lives with her much-loved poodle, Mabel, and long-haired chihuahua, Duke, that Cox said he bought to keep her company and now follow her everywhere she goes around the house.
Land records obtained by DailyMail.com show that Mart purchased their home in 2001. Although sales of homes in the state of Montana aren’t public records, the property itself is now estimated to be worth $550,000.
In 2020, the couple, who have been married for 13 years, took out two loans from two different mortgage companies for $604,500 – bringing the total loan to over $1.2million.
Brentrup’s health and financial issues have contributed to the distance between her and sons, according to insiders.
‘They can’t afford a flight. Plus, Patricia can’t travel alone anymore and their stepfather doesn’t want to go to New York, so their travels are on a standstill,’ the source told DailyMail.com.
Macaulay noted Kit has become a model for how not to raise his sons Dakota, three, and Carson, two, whom he shares with Brenda Song; pictured with Brenda and Dakota in 2023
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Cox says he knows the Culkin boys have struggled with their mom being so far away, both geographically and culturally, from their lives in New York and Los Angeles.
‘I think they’ve had some hard feelings about that,’ he said.
He admits that while he doesn’t follow show business or award season very closely, he is proud of Kieran’s Oscar achievement and makes a point to remind Brentrup of it as often as possible:
‘I posted a picture of his acceptance on our refrigerator, you know, so she doesn’t forget.’
Brentrup filed a petition in New York Supreme Court in spring 1995 seeking custody of the kids after their father abandoned the family earlier that year.
Two years later, a judge awarded her with sole custody of Macaulay and his four younger siblings. (Shane and Dakota were not minors at the time).
A source told DailyMail.com: ‘Kit never showed for the final court appearance, so he lost totally. He was going to lose the kids anyway, so he said, “Well, she deserves them. She can have them.” And that was the end of it.’
Kit was awarded ‘reasonable’ visitation, but said that he could not visit his older children until family therapy healed his relationship with them, according to UPI.
Patricia was awarded back child support payments of between $32,000 and $47,000 for Macaulay.
Macaulay and Kieran, who were 16 and 14 at the time, have both indicated that they did not want to see their father.
The State Supreme Court Justice described Kit as ‘a demanding, difficult and pugnacious man,’ but credited him with Macaulay’s success as a star.
Kieran has publicly thrown shade at their father in the past, famously snubbing Kit at the 2024 Emmys after he accepted the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
The Home Alone star soon after went to court to have his parents removed from his trust fund – they were acting as his managers and pocketed around 15 percent of his earnings per film – and an executor was appointed in their place.
As for the other Culkin children, Shane, a former actor, has kept a low profile ever since he quit acting. Rory has continued acting, but for smaller projects, and has a YouTube channel.
Meanwhile, Christian appears to be a contributing writer and Quinn works as a chef and film caterer as well as posts food content on her Instagram.
The source claimed to DailyMail.com: ‘The youngest three don’t have as big of a paycheck, obviously, as their siblings are pulling in and are pretty bad off.
‘Christian, for example, doesn’t have a real job, doesn’t earn much income and is living with somebody who’s taking care of him.’
According to court records, Quinn owes nearly $8,000 in taxes. She was slapped with a tax lien in New York in 2018 and another in December 2024.
Records show she still owes $3,593.46 for the first lien and $4,168.74 for the second.
When reached for comment, Quinn told DailyMail.com that everything Macaulay said on the podcast was true and that she and her siblings are ‘working hard and doing good,’ adding, ‘Everybody’s doing fine.’
When asked if she has a close relationship with all her siblings, she responded: ‘Yes, for the most part.’
The inside source told DailyMail.com: ‘Everyone in the family feels the same way about Kit. He was so mean and ornery and deceitful and lying that his kids didn’t want anything to do with him. They hated their father.
The source went on to allege: ‘He beat their mother several times, and even one time knocked her teeth out.
‘They wanted to stay away from him. They were afraid of him. They would all hide under the table as their dad whipped up on their mother.’
The source continued, ‘Patricia just would hide to run away from him. She would get a new place somewhere and not tell anybody where they were at.
‘But he also just left them. He would just take off and leave three weeks at a time.’
In 2001, Kit’s partner at the time, Jeanette Krylowski, denied he abused any of his children, and claimed that Patricia lied to keep her kids away from their dad.
Despite the abuse allegations, an insider told DailyMail.com that the Culkin brothers don’t give their dad as much credit as they should as they normally credit their mom.
‘They’re all good kids and they’ve all grown up under tough circumstances. Their dad was the hardest thing they ever overcame, but yet they still should show respect for him because if it wasn’t for him, they wouldn’t have ever got into the acting,’ the insider said.
‘He first got Macaulay into acting, and then Kieran fell into it. They wouldn’t be where they are today without him, without what he did for him.’
