Brenda Song Shares New Details About Macaulay Culkin’s Proposal — and the Role Their Elder Son Played

Macaulay Culkin‘s proposal to Brenda Song was a family affair, all thanks to their son Dakota!

In a new interview with The Sunday Times published on March 2, Song — who stars in the new Netflix series Running Point — revealed some new details about the moment when Culkin, 44, asked her to marry him.

While the pair previously teased the story to Cosmopolitan earlier this year, the actress is now sharing how the proposal went down and how their elder son Dakota, now 3, was involved in the process.

As Song detailed, her Home Alone star partner popped the question over Christmas in 2021 when he gifted her “a bunch of really weird presents” — including some garden gnomes.

“Like 21 individually wrapped gnomes, which I thought was a joke because we had so many in our garden,” Song told The Sunday Times. “Another present was a box of Amazon stuff I said I’d return for him. I was like, ‘I’m not getting this joke.’ ”

At the time of the proposal, Dakota was about 7 months old, but Culkin still made him part of the memorable moment with some apparent help from dad.

“Then the last present was a letter written ‘from’ Dakota, like, ‘Papa is such a bad gift-giver, here’s something better to give Mom,’ ” Song added of their son. “And then he was down on one knee, proposing. He was like, ‘I wanted to lower your expectations.’ Which he did! But it was very sweet and very us. We’re big kids.”

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Since the proposal more than four years ago, the proud parents welcomed their second child, Carson, in December 2022. Speaking with PEOPLE last month, Song opened up about how becoming a mother and “finding such fulfillment in my personal life” has left an impact on her.

“I feel like for the first time, it’s truly that next phase in my life. And with that being said, my priorities changed,” Song said. “That was the big difference. I think that’s what I was struggling with — our society really tells us as women to follow your dreams, do what you got to do, go out there, do your thing, girl, but also be a full-time mom, make sure you’re at home and making dinner.”

“It’s like, I was like, ‘How do I do this? How do I figure this out?’ And with The Last Showgirl and Running Point as amazing as the actual projects are, I always say what has been the most important thing for me is the people I worked with,” she added, as she reflected on working with director Gia Coppola on The Last Showgirl and actress Kate Hudson on Running Point. 

The sports-comedy series stars Hudson as the heir to her family’s Los Angeles professional basketball franchise, with Song, Drew Tarver, Jay Ellis, Justin Theroux, Scott MacArthur, Max Greenfield and others rounding out the cast.