Kim Basinger’s world crumbled during her divorce from Alec Baldwin, which affected her efforts to give their daughter Ireland a stable childhood. “We went through a heavy-duty, very out-loud when you’re in the public, divorce. And she had to go through that very rough time,” Basinger said on the April 27 episode of the “Red Table Talk.”
Parenting through the legal hardships was difficult enough, but the strained relationship with Alec didn’t help. “Alec’s a funny one,” she laughed. “We’re all fine and we all get along, whatever … But he’s a challenge. I mean, c’mon. We’ve had our challenges.” Ireland, who was present in the joint interview, laughed with her head down as her mother spoke.
Basinger has previously addressed the turmoil of her divorce and its impact on Ireland. “Divorce is hard on a kid, no matter how you cut it. And ours was very public and nasty,” she told Net-a-Porter in 2016, comparing her life with Alec to “Sleeping with the Enemy.” The divorce was no less hard on Alec, who compared it to the Indochina War. “That point of my life is a blur … from 2000–2006, during the Dien Bien Phu of my divorce litigation … I can barely tell you what I did for those six years,” the “30 Rock” star told The Guardian in 2013. “It was a period that was so painful, I was staring off a cliff for six years.”
