A Timeline Of Alec Baldwin's Complicated Relationship With His Oldest Daughter Ireland

Celebrity births are always headline makers, especially when the newborn has two famous parents. In Ireland Baldwin's case, that would be "Batman" star Kim Basinger and her then-husband, Alec Baldwin, who had starred in "Glengarry Glen Ross" three years before his daughter's October 23, 1995, arrival. Ireland's birth was also of particular interest to the media because Alec got arrested as he was taking his baby girl home. According to a 1995 Los Angeles Times report, an LAPD lieutenant said that the trouble began when Alec asked a paparazzo not to film Ireland. An argument ensued and the photographer, Alan Zanger, claimed that the actor hit him in the face. "There were no witnesses to this and therefore the police refused to make an arrest. Mr. Zanger then made a citizen's arrest," Alec recounted in a statement. This event foreshadowed the tumultuous twists and turns Ireland's life would take because of her father's behavior.

While the actor was acquitted of misdemeanor battery in March 1996, no parent wants to spend the first months of their baby's life preparing for and standing trial. But at least some good press came out of the ordeal – Alec's testimony included the argument that he was just being a protective father by reacting to a perceived threat. He pointed out that, for all he knew, the purportedly aggressive photographer could have been a child abductor. Unfortunately, Alec's chaotic moments would serve as fish wrap chum for years to come, and the outcomes wouldn't always be so positive where Ireland was concerned. The one thing many people might know about their relationship is that Alec once left Ireland that voicemail, but the father and daughter have weathered other storms.

When Ireland Baldwin was 5 years old, Kim Basinger filed for divorce from Alec Baldwin. Days after the January 2001 filing, Kim's father, Don Basinger, said that one reason for the split was that Kim didn't want Ireland exposed to Alec's angry outbursts. The exes also reportedly didn't see eye to eye on which coast they would raise their daughter on. According to Alec, the final straw was a disagreement over whether his preferred city of residence, Long Island, was exacerbating Ireland's respiratory issues. Their custody battle got ugly, with Kim telling Alec at one point, "You'll never get her — not while I'm breathing," per New York Magazine.

The couple had a custody agreement in place by the end of 2002. Alec had agreed to take anger management classes, and he had to fly to Los Angeles to visit his daughter. Unfortunately, the fight was far from over. In 2005, Alec accused Kim of attempting to drive a wedge between him and Ireland. He also believed Kim was trying to limit the time he spent with Ireland. "You wind up being more an uncle than a father," he lamented to The New Yorker. Reflecting on those tumultuous years, Alec said on a 2025 episode of "The Baldwins" that he regretted how Ireland got caught in the middle of her parents' messy conflict. "My relationship with my daughter Ireland was so negatively impacted by my divorce," he shared (via Today). Ireland has also opened up about how she was faring. "I grew up without two parents in my home and no siblings to turn to," she wrote in a 2025 Substack post (via People). "I had a lonely childhood at times."

Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger's custody agreement required Ireland Baldwin to have her own voicemail. This was so Alec could leave a message if she didn't pick up when he called for a scheduled catch-up. But on a fateful day in 2007, he had to be raging against the machine for recording his words. That April, TMZ shared audio of an angry Alec saying to his daughter, "You've made me feel like a fool over and over again. I'm going to straighten your a** out ... You are a rude, thoughtless little pig" (via Page Six). This rant gave Basinger new ammunition in the custody battle, and a judge prohibited Alec from seeing Ireland for what ended up being nearly a year. One of the "30 Rock" star's friends informed TMZ that Alec had told Ireland he was sorry for what he said, while his rep made it known that he believed Basinger had leaked the voicemail to the media.

Alec also made a play for sympathy by sitting down on "The View" and talking about how hard custody battles can be on fathers. Of how his own experience caused him to lash out at Ireland, Alec said, "I took it out on the wrong person because I'm unable, under the current dynamic, to address the other person." Elsewhere in the interview, he spoke about how things stood between him and Ireland, saying, "I have a great relationship with my daughter." This was followed by an anecdote about how Ireland once told him that Basinger always yelled at her to get out of bed, while Alec woke her up gently by stroking her head. But it wasn't enough to make the scandal go away.

It soon became evident that the specter of the voicemail was not going to go gentle into that good night. Ireland Baldwin addressed it herself in a September 2012 Page Six Magazine interview. "The only problem with that voicemail was that people made it out to be a way bigger deal than it was," said the then-16-year-old. "He's said stuff like that before just because he's frustrated. For me, it was like, 'Okay, whatever.'" She added that she and her father immediately moved on from it after she apologized for not having her phone, and by the time of her interview, the whole ordeal had become something they could look back on and laugh about.

Rewinding to 2009, Alec Baldwin told Elle that he and Ireland had a normal father-and-teen-daughter dynamic, meaning she didn't want to be seen with him in public. "I mean, she's pleasant about it ... She's very sweet," he added. He also spoke about how being around Ireland more was positively impacting his life. "Time that I'm with Ireland, it's just — it's the most relaxed, I sleep better, I'm happier," he revealed. "I'd do anything to have more kids." Alec went on to say that he didn't feel like becoming a dad again was in the cards for him, but little did he know what the future had in store. In June 2012, Alec and Hilaria Baldwin made their relationship official. Ireland didn't just attend the wedding; she walked her father down the aisle. By then, she had already developed a close relationship with Hilaria (née Hillary Hayward-Thomas). "She's like a big sister to me ... We joke around and I call her 'Mom,'" she told Page Six Magazine.

After gaining a stepmother who was like an older sister to her, Ireland Baldwin became an older sister herself when Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Baldwin welcomed their first child together in 2013. Ireland posted a sweet note to her little sister, Carmen Baldwin, on Tumblr, also advising her sibling to avoid getting into heated arguments with her parents and to watch her words. "I have said many things to our Dad and to my mom that I regret terribly," she wrote (via E! News). However, Ireland did concede, "You will get extremely annoyed with your parents. TRUST ME. Parents are cray cray."

As the years marched on, fans got to see more of the sillier side of Ireland's relationship with her father. In July 2015, Ireland shared a since-deleted photo on X of her and Alec reading a book titled, "If I Were a Pig." Her accompanying message read, "If I were a pig ... I would be a rude and thoughtless one of course!" (via Just Jared). The following day, her dad goofed off at the "Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation" premiere by playfully mocking her sultry red-carpet pose. Alec was then at it again that October. Ireland took to Instagram to share a screenshot of a text exchange she had with him about a tabloid story that romantically linked her to Olivia Wilde's first husband, Tao Ruspoli. "Are you getting married?" her dad had cheekily asked her. "Am I going to be a grandfather?" (via the Daily Mail). That same month, Ireland got a tattoo of the funny nickname her father bestowed on her: "Écureuil," which is French for "squirrel."

Alec Baldwin seems to consider that infamous voicemail one of the great tragedies of Ireland Baldwin's life. "My daughter, that's hurt her in a permanent way," he said during a 2017 "Good Morning America" interview after revealing that it's something people just keep bringing up. Backing up a few years to 2013, there was some evidence of this lasting harm in one of Ireland's Tumblr posts. "I don't want to forever be known as 'that rude, thoughtless little pig,'" she wrote (via the Daily News). While the voicemail would remain something the Baldwins' critics would keep using as a cudgel to bludgeon them with, Ireland remained capable of laughing it off under certain circumstances. During the 2017 "One Night Only: Alec Baldwin" special, she joked, "My dad and I are in a much better place now. He would never say something like that. Because I'm 6'2," and I would kick his a**" (via Refinery29). However, she also praised Alec, telling him, "I really am proud to be your daughter ... and I absolutely love and adore you." 

What Ireland apparently doesn't adore is her dad's social media advice. In 2018, Alec reposted her nude photo for PETA's anti-fur campaign, much to his Instagram followers' surprise. But Ireland revealed that it wasn't her scantily clad social media pics that bothered him the most. "The photos I get yelled at by my dad are the ones where I am drunk-eating at night at 2 a.m. at IHOP," she told Us Weekly in 2019. "I posted this video, like, drinking maple syrup, and he was like, 'You have to take that down! No one's going to take you seriously.' And I'm like, 'Get over it, old man.'"

While having her name forever attached to a hurtful insult for simply failing to answer the phone was undeserved and unfair, Ireland Baldwin continued to make light of her father's voicemail fury at his 2019 Comedy Central roast. "It's good to be here," she told the crowd. "I almost didn't even know about it because I haven't checked my voicemails from my dad from the last, like, 12 years." She also hit Alec Baldwin with a few zingers about missed birthday parties and how only one of her parents was the proud owner of an Oscar. While Ireland's jokes painted a picture of a father and daughter with a distant relationship, they really cared deeply for one another. 

In 2020, Ireland told ET that they had turned to therapy to work things out after having their lives blown up by the leaked voicemail. She also revealed that actual distance was preventing her from spending as much time with Alec as she would have liked, as they lived on opposite coasts. "I love him, I respect him more than anyone," she gushed. Ireland's interview took place not long after Kobe Bryant's death, so she spoke about how that tragedy had affected the way she wanted her relationship with her father to be. "It's like, 'What's the f***ing point of arguing?'" she stated. "Let's all just get over it and hug that person you love." In the wake of the controversy over Hilaria Baldwin's heritage, Ireland also shared an update on her relationship with her stepmother. In a lengthy post on her Instagram Story, Ireland wrote in part (via People), "I thank God often that the stars aligned and I wound up with a stepmom like you."

In October 2021, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died on the set of the movie "Rust" when Alec Baldwin discharged a prop gun. Alec faced an involuntary manslaughter trial over the fatal accident and was also tried in the court of public opinion. Ireland Baldwin made her case to the latter as one of her father's most supportive character witnesses. In a since-deleted Instagram post, Ireland shared a comment from a person who remembered the one request Alec had included on his rider when he filmed "Thomas and the Magic Railroad." It read in part, "He only wanted to make sure he had milk and cereal in his hotel room for when his daughter was visiting." Ireland wrote in her caption, "Amongst some of the most abhorrent and threatening comments, emails, text messages, and voicemails I've been getting ... this beautiful comment stands alone. I know my dad, you simply don't. I love you, Dad (via Today).

In April 22, Ireland also spoke about how the tragedy affected her dad when she and Kim Basinger appeared on "Red Table Talk." "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," she revealed. Because of this upbringing, Ireland shared that she used to feel like she couldn't talk to Alec about her own anxiety. "He can't really sympathize as much with it, but it's not his fault, and he's gotten way better," she said. Ireland seemed to suggest that the shooting had made her father change how he coped with his anxiety up to that point, which was essentially by trying to bottle it all up. "He's been forced to finally deal with these things," she explained.

By April 2022, Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Baldwin had welcomed six children together. Upon learning a seventh was on the way, Ireland Baldwin called out everyone who had become fixated on the couple's growing family. She also revealed that media outlets were trying to get her to weigh in on the latest Baldwin baby news, so she did. "It's none of my business," she wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post (via Page Six). A few months later, Ireland shared an also-deleted TikTok addressing a claim that she received an allowance from her parents every month. She denied that this was the case and seemed to suggest that Alec didn't have the resources to financially help her in that manner. "[He has] a lot of kids, a wife, and a whole family," she pointed out (via Page Six).

Alec reminded his Instagram followers how much his family had grown with a May 2023 Instagram carousel. He captioned the photos of his kids, "Seven reasons to carry on during some tough times." There was just one problem: He forgot that he had an eighth reason. After fans pointed out Ireland was missing from his tribute, he shared a photo of her and wrote, "We forgot Billy Preston!" in reference to the musician whom some consider the fifth Beatle. "This one, the first one, is about to make me a grandfather. Oy." When Ireland made Alec a grandfather later that month, she returned the favor in a post celebrating her daughter Holland's birth. "I couldn't be more grateful for my partner's parents and my mom who visited," she wrote (via the New York Post), failing to include her father in her baby announcement. Double oy.

All seemed well by May 2024 when Ireland Baldwin posted a photo on Instagram of her dad hanging out with her daughter at the Museum of Ice Cream. A few months later, she shared another family update, writing, "Holland finally met her aunts and uncles." Her post included photos and videos of Holland with Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Baldwin's kids. Ireland also appeared on a March 2025 episode of "The Baldwins" and praised Hilaria on Instagram that September. "Hilaria is the reason I am able to have the close relationship with my father that I do," she wrote. That said, in October 2025, Ireland revealed that she had cut some family members out of her life. "For whatever reason, their validation and praise was meaningful to me," she revealed in a Substack post (via People). "Nothing was more freeing than finally realizing how poisonous these people are."

Naturally, there was a lot of speculation about who she was talking about. Some Redditors even questioned whether Ireland and her dad and stepmom were on the outs. However, they were unlikely culprits, as Hilaria revealed that Ireland had spent her birthday with her half-siblings just days after the Substack post went live. In her birthday message to Ireland, Hilaria wrote on Instagram, "We love you so very much and it was so meaningful to celebrate with you today." In April 2026, Kim Basinger wished Alec a happy birthday in an Instagram post that included footage of them in "The Marrying Man." Alec graciously thanked his ex in the comments, and Ireland wrote, "That's my parents! That's why I'm so smokin' HOT." After their turbulent early years as a family, it seems the trio is finally getting along.