Alec Baldwin says his notorious 2007 leaked voice mail to daughter Ireland Baldwin caused “permanent” damage to their relationship. Watch the video above to see what he said.
While promoting his new memoir, Nevertheless, on Good Morning America, the 59-year-old actor explained how he’s regularly reminded of the incident. “It’s thrown in your face everyday. As I mention in the book, there are people who admonish me and attack me and use that as a constant spearhead to do that,” he told George Stephanopoulos in the interview, which aired on Monday, April 3.
![Alec Baldwin and daughter Ireland Baldwin attend the "Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation" New York premiere at Times Square on July 27, 2015 in New York City.](/wp-content/uploads/alec-baldwin-ireland-zoom-ef769bde-b56e-4446-8d81-91bcdd9f166d.jpg?w=1000&quality=40&strip=all)
In the infamous expletive-filled rant, the 30 Rock alum called his then 11-year-old daughter a “rude, thoughtless little pig” while she was caught up in a custody battle between Baldwin and his ex-wife, Kim Basinger. The model missed one of her scheduled phone calls with the actor, which caused Baldwin to threaten to “straighten [her] ass out.”
While the father-daughter duo have since repaired their relationship and even joked about the voice mail, it still had lasting effects. “It’s a scab that never heals ’cause it’s being picked at all the time by other people,” he said. “My daughter, that’s hurt her in a permanent way.”
Baldwin is in a much better place now. He married Hilaria Baldwin in 2012, and they share three children, Carmen, 3, Rafael, 21 months, and Leonardo, 6 months. “You talk about in the business, you’ve got to be lucky, and I’ve been lucky to some degree,” he said. “I’m luckier in my personal life, and I’m glad that I’m luckier in my personal life. And if I had to choose, I’d pick that.”
Nevertheless: A Memoir will be released on Tuesday, April 4.