Users on social media are sharing a fabricated quote from actor Macaulay Culkin about child sexual abuse. It is not true and stems from an unfounded article that has been circulating since 2017.
The lengthy quote begins: “You learn to (sic) recognise early on which of them want to abuse you” and continues by talking about alleged abuse in Hollywood including gruesome allegations of shoes made of human flesh. Examples of the posts are visible here , here , here .
The quote likely stems from an unfounded article that, according to the earliest version Reuters could find, dates to December 12, 2017. A now deleted version of the article on News Punch can be seen archive.is/ekumf . The outlet has been repeatedly discredited by Fact-Checkers ( here ). Other early similar iterations can be seen here and here .
According to the multiple iterations of the text, Culkin purportedly made the statement during a radio interview in France. Reuters found no evidence of this alleged exchange nor any report on the matter by a reliable source.
A spokesperson for Culkin told Reuters via email that the quote “erroneously attributed to Macaulay Culkin is not only false it is completely fabricated”. She added, “It is offensive and misleading and should be disregarded entirely.”
Most versions of the claim reference an alleged report published by French business daily Les Echos titled “Macaulay Culkin parle de l’horreur de l’abus Hollywoodien sur les enfants live à la radio” and feature what appears to be a fabricated screenshot of the French site visible here .
A spokesperson from Les Echos confirmed to Reuters on email that the newspaper did not publish this article. They also referred to a French fact-checking site, Hoax Buster, which has debunked the fabricated article here . At the time, Hoax Buster noted that the text appeared to be written by a non-French speaker and was most likely created through a translation assistant like Google Translate.
VERDICT
False. There is no evidence that Macaulay Culkin ever made this statement.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts here .
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.