Alec Baldwin not ‘mentally available’ for daughter Ireland, Kim Basinger says

Alec Baldwin, Ireland Baldwin

Ireland Baldwin (L) and Alec Baldwin attend the Comedy Central Roast of Alec Baldwin at Saban Theatre on September 7, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images for Comedy Central)

Alec Baldwin wasn’t always “emotionally and mentally available” for his oldest daughter’s issues, his ex-wife Kim Basinger says in a new interview.

Basinger and Ireland Baldwin, her daughter with Alec, sat down for a conversation with Jada Pinkett Smith and her daughter Willow Smith on the Facebook Watch series “Red Table Talk” Wednesday, focusing on Ireland’s struggles with mental health and eating disorders. Ireland, a 26-year-old model, said she was “self-medicating with Xanax” and “drinking,” adding that she has “a lot of alcoholism and drug addiction in my family.”

Basinger, who had a very contentious divorce from Alec Baldwin two decades ago, said their relationship has improved but they haven’t been able to discuss the biggest problems.

“You know we’re all fine, we all get along, whatever. But he’s a challenge. We’ve had our challenges,” the 68-year-old Oscar-winning actress said. “I don’t think Alec was emotionally or mentally available for that kind of talk. Alec, you know, operates in a very different way in his life.”

Ireland said she believes her father suffers from anxiety, but said he “grew up in a family that would suppress that as well or tell him he’s weak for feeling that way.” Alec’s family includes his mother, Camillus resident Carol M. Baldwin, and fellow acting brothers Billy, Stephen and Daniel Baldwin.

“There’s things I would go to my father for,” Ireland said, “but if I ever even try to have this conversation in any way with him, I don’t think he would be able to really absorb any of it.”

Kim Basinger, Ireland Baldwin

Kim Basinger, left, and her daughter Ireland Baldwin appear on Facebook Watch's "Red Table Talk" April 27, 2022. The talk show is hosted by Jada Pinkett Smith, her daughter Willow, and her mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris. (Video still)

Ireland also told Willow that she didn’t speak to either of her parents for a time period because of substance abuse.

“I had a night where I went way too far with drinking and taking pills ‘cause I couldn’t even go to bed at night,” she said. “I had isolated all of my real friends, isolated my family. I had no control in anything in my life. I tortured myself with my eating disorders that I had. I didn’t talk to my parents for like a year. I saw them here and there, but I was so ashamed of what I had become and how I was living.”

Ireland credited her cousin Alaia Baldwin, the daughter of Stephen and older sister of Hailey Bieber, with saving her life. “I think I would’ve committed suicide or I would have been dead. I was so close,” she said.

Basinger, who starred in movies like “Batman,” “9 1/2 Weeks,” “L.A. Confidential,” “8 Mile,” and James Bond’s “Never Say Never Again,” married Alec Baldwin in 1992 and welcomed Ireland in 1995. They divorced in 2002 and their split was nasty in public for years, including when Alec famously called his then 11-year-old daughter a “rude and thoughtless little pig” in 2007.

Ireland Baldwin said her relationship with her parents is better now, and said she’s been “free of anorexia and bulimia” for years now.

Alec, 64, is currently expecting his eighth child, his seventh with wife Hilaria Baldwin. The Emmy-winning actor’s credits include “30 Rock,” “Beetlejuice,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “The Departed,” “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “Saturday Night Live,” “The Boss Baby,” and two “Mission: Impossible” movies.

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