Actress Kim Basinger has spoken about the challenges of both her marriage to - and divorce from - Alec Baldwin, saying that her split from the fellow actor had been “heavy duty”.
In an appearance with her daughter Ireland Baldwin during an episode of the Facebook Watch series, Red Table Talk, the mother-daughter duo joined hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, her mother Adrienne Banfield Norris, and daughter Willow Smith to discuss crippling anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias.
During the 30-minute show, the Oscar-winning actress admitted that going through a “heavy-duty, very out loud when you’re in the public, divorce” from Alec Baldwin was a rough time for their daughter Ireland, who was only seven years old when the couple finalised their divorce in 2002.
When co-host Pinkett Smith asked if the former couple were able to see eye-to-eye on how to handle their daughter’s anxiety, Basinger laughed and said: “Eye to eye? Uh, no.”
“Alec’s a funny one,” she added during Wednesday’s show. “We’ve had our challenges and 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,” the 68-year-old actress said.
Basinger and Baldwin were married in 1993 after starring opposite each other in the 1991 romantic comedy, The Marrying Man. After separating in 2001, the exes underwent a bitter four-year custody battle over their only daughter, Ireland.
Back in 2016, the L.A. Confidential actress provided an update on her relationship with the 30 Rock star, saying that the two are now on good terms. “[Alec and I] are cool now,” Basinger told The Edit. “Life goes on.”
During the Red Table Talk episode, Ireland explained that her father is also “suffering tremendously” from anxiety in response to the Rust shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
“He deals with anxiety greatly but he’s someone who grew up in a family that would suppress that as well or tell him he’s weak for feeling that way,” Ireland said about her father, 63. “I think he really suppressed his anxiety up until pretty recently. He’s really been dealing with things that have been thrown at him. He’s been forced to finally deal with these things.”
Throughout the show, both mother and daughter recalled their past experiences with anxiety disorders and phobias. Basinger revealed she lived with agoraphobia for years, while Ireland said she suffers from cardiophobia, a fear of one’s own heartbeat.
New episodes of Red Table Talk airs Wednesdays at noon ET on Facebook Watch.
