The pair have been together since 2017, but Brenda admits it took some warming to Macaulay before she became romantically interested.
In an interview with Cosmopolitan, she recalled meeting the Home Alone star in 2014 through Seth Green, Macaulay’s friend and her Dads costar. At the time, the show had recently been canceled. According to Brenda, Macaulay, who was visiting Seth, was trying to make jokes to uplift them — but she wasn’t laughing.
“He was trying to be funny about our show being canceled and I was not having it,” Brenda said. The interviewer noted that Macaulay even wound up leaving the room because of all of the dirty looks Brenda shot him. “She was thoroughly unimpressed by me is what I will say,” Macaulay added.
He and Brenda reconnected three years later while shooting Seth’s directorial debut, Changeland. They would spend their free time playing gin rummy, and before long, Brenda found herself liking him. She recalled connecting with him over things like their shared dream baby name of “Dakota,” which also happened to be the name of his late sister. She also remembered how Macaulay let her read some of his journals, allowing her to get to know him on a deeper level.
“I saw this person he put out there,” she said. “It was a product of this armor that he’s put on to protect himself. But I could see that that wasn’t really who he was; I could see these glimpses of this really interesting, very sensitive, very intelligent, artistic person that he doesn’t really let show.”
Brenda also had walls up herself. “We were both very hurt in past relationships and kept expectations low,” she confessed, admitting that even though they continued to see each other after filming wrapped, it took a while for them to acknowledge they were dating.
These days, Brenda and Macaulay are still going strong. They have two children — Dakota, 3, and Carson, 2 — and have been engaged since 2022. However, their wedding plans are still TBD. “We talked about eloping,” Brenda said of the holdup. “But I was like, ‘If we eloped, my mom would have a heart attack that she wasn’t going to be there.'” Macaulay added he wouldn’t dare do that to his future mother-in-law. “I wouldn’t even!”
You can read the full interview here (and you really should because it’s super cute!). Then share your thoughts on it in the comments.
