Have you ever thought about the story of Macaulay Culkin? This guy became a millionaire at just 12 years old, which is practically impossible to imagine. When he made the first Sozinho em Casa, he earned about $100,000. But when the film made $476 million worldwide, he asked for $4.5 million to make the sequel. At 12 years old, Macaulay Culkin already had more money than his parents. It sounds great in theory, but the reality was very different.

His father, Kit, quit his job when his son became famous in the 1980s and turned into his manager. All the studios wanted Macaulay, and he became one of the biggest, best-paid stars in the world. Then, control started. I remember reading that he and his father delayed filming The Good Son for 9 months while the studio waited. The kid was tired and wanted to rest, but the father didn’t care.

What’s even heavier is that Macaulay Culkin opened up later about the abuse he suffered. He said his father wouldn’t even let him have a bed to sleep in—only to “remind him who was in charge” when he became famous. That’s really disturbing. In 1995, his parents separated, and a tough legal battle began over his custody and his fortune. His mother couldn’t even pay rent because the lawyers’ costs kept rising.

The craziest part is that during all of this, Macaulay Culkin didn’t know how much wealth he had. The only way to access his own money was to take the parents’ names off the trust fund. When he did that, his father was so furious that he didn’t even show up on the last day of the trial. They never heard from him again.

All of this shows something very real: money can completely destroy a family. In the case of Macaulay Culkin’s fortune, his parents thought it was their money, not his. That’s common with child celebrities. The lesson here is that without a healthy relationship with money, it will always take priority over everything else. Very few things in life have that kind of destructive power.