At the 97th Academy Awards, actor Kieran Culkin caused a bit of a stir online when he accepted the Oscar for best supporting actor for his celebrated role in “A Real Pain.” During Culkin’s acceptance speech, he asked his wife, Jazz Charton, for more children, apparently following up on a deal they made in jest some time prior. “She turned to me — I swear to God this happened, it was over a year ago — she said, ‘I will give you four [kids] when you win an Oscar.’ […] And I have not brought it up once until just now,” the actor quipped, adding, “Let’s get cracking on those kids. What do you say?”

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On the surface, it seems like an inside joke between a husband and wife that was made public in a rather humorous manner. But if you looked on social media during and after the Oscars, you’ll know that people definitely had thoughts. Some felt it was adorable, while others found it weird and maybe even a little sexist, and some landed in the middle, reasoning that it was kind of tacky but ultimately harmless. At any rate, the routine landed well with his target audience, as Charton — with whom Culkin already shares two kids — could be seen laughing from the audience. She even played along in a post shared on Instagram after the show. Still, it got us wondering about some of the other aspects of Culkin and Charton’s relationship that come off as slightly weird.

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If you were to ask just about anyone for advice on how to break the ice with someone you’re interested in, surely no one in their right mind would tell you to make fun of that person’s name right off the bat. But that’s exactly what Kieran Culkin did when he first met Jazz Charton — and, funnily enough, it actually worked! While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2021, the “Succession” star recalled their first encounter, which occurred at a New York bar nine years prior. “I said, ‘I’m Kieran. You have an English accent. What’s your name?’ She said, ‘Jazz.’ I said, ‘J-A-Z-Z, like the music?’ And she said, ‘Yeah.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s f—ing stupid,” Culkin shared. Luckily the London native, who was working for an American advertising firm at the time, found this both hilarious and charming. 

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She and the actor got married just one year after their unconventional meet-cute. And they say romance is dead. Obviously, most people probably wouldn’t say something like that to someone they’d just met. But Culkin is not most people, and we imagine that growing up in a notoriously eccentric (and often troubled) household alongside seven other siblings — including two brothers who also happen to be famous actors — would make just about anyone comfortable with saying whatever pops into their head. Fortunately, though, the “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” star seems to have found someone who loves him all the same.

Though it’s a magical experience, planning a wedding is often very stressful too, and hiring a wedding planner to relieve some of the pressure is certain to cost you a pretty penny. So, it’s not terribly uncommon for some couples to just say, “To heck with it!” and elope. So, we wouldn’t exactly call it strange that Kieran Culkin and Jazz Charton did exactly that back in June 2013. What is a bit different, however, is that the happy couple decided to do it in the middle of a road trip.

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In 2017, Charton took to Instagram to celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary, sharing a look at the makeshift ceremony in northeastern Iowa in the process. But it wasn’t until their seventh anniversary in 2020 that she offered some more details regarding how it all went down, explaining that the road trip was originally only going to be six weeks long — but ended up lasting more than three months. Charton also revealed that she and Culkin were able to get their marriage license thanks to a girl named Kinsey, whom they later named their daughter after.

The “Igby Goes Down” star opened up about how magical the elopement was in a 2021 interview with The Telegraph, gushing, “We pulled up in the pouring rain […] and the moment we were married the rain stopped and the clouds parted and there was a rainbow […] a giant rainbow right over the valley we were looking at.” 

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Weirdly enough, awards shows being linked to having kids is a recurring theme in Kieran Culkin and Jazz Charton’s relationship. In May 2019, about four months after her husband lost out at the 76th Golden Globe Awards, Charton announced that she was expecting the couple’s first child (the aforementioned Kinsey). “My favourite surprise so far,” she sweetly wrote on Instagram, adding, “We had no idea how much we wanted this until it happened.” The following year, after Culkin once again left the Golden Globes empty handed, Charton playfully disclosed in another Instagram post that his previous loss may have been how she became a mother in the first place, quipping,  “My 3 time Golden Globe loser. I got pregnant the last time he lost so I’m out of consolation prize ideas.” 

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Culkin was first nominated for a Golden Globe all the way back in 2003, but he didn’t manage to score a win until his fifth nomination in 2024.  The actor added another Golden Globe to his shelf in quick succession (see what we did there?) just one year later. Following his second win, Charton congratulated her husband on Instagram with a characteristically tongue-in-cheek post: “What a dream to watch this all happen to one of the most hardworking but also somehow the least ambitious person I’ve ever known.”

When Kieran Culkin and Jazz Charton welcomed their daughter in 2019, they already had the perfect name for her thanks to the woman who helped the couple get married some six years earlier. However, when their son followed in 2021, picking a name wasn’t quite as easy. Granted, deciding what to call your baby is a huge decision. You don’t want to give them a name they’ll end up hating as an adult, so it’s crucial to think it through thoroughly. Still, waiting seven weeks to officially christen your newborn is a bit excessive.

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During a 2021 appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” Culkin confessed that he and Charton actually expected their second child to be a girl, and they had already narrowed it down to two names. But when it turned out to be a boy, the couple more or less had to start over. Charton had an idea, but her actor hubby wasn’t quite so sure about it. “My wife wanted Wolf,” Culkin confirmed, elaborating, “She was fighting hard for Wolf. We found [that name] in the hospital the day that he was born and we thought, ‘That’s great.'” 

As he admitted, though, “Instead of pulling the trigger on it, ‘Let’s torture ourselves for about seven weeks.’ […] [We] spent seven weeks arguing about names.” Ultimately, Culkin and Charton compromised by naming their son Wilder Wolf. Better late than never.

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