dragging into a public storm with a post pleading for ‘prayers’ for her and her husband is par for the course for the Baldwin family.
The acting dynasty is made up of brothers Stephen, , Billy Baldwin and Daniel Baldwin, who made stars of themselves and through roles in iconic films – and.
And even as Hailey is with Stephen for publicly asking for prayers without any details, leading to rumours about , she has always had a ‘really close’ relationship with her father, even ‘appreciating’ how open he was with her about his addiction issues before he turned to Christianity.
Addiction is rife in the Baldwin family, with Hailey previously telling Victoria’s Secret Voices podcast she would never try cocaine as she’s afraid she could be genetically predisposed to addiction.
Her uncle, Daniel Baldwin, suffered in his career after he was dropped from rom-com It Had To Be You in 1998 after being arrested for cocaine possession; he had been found running n**ed.n**ed through the halls of a New York hotel shouting his own last name.
She explained on the podcast in 2021: ‘There’s a lot of addiction that runs in my family, not even just my dad but a lot of other people on that side of my family struggle with a lot of different things. My dad was always really open about [his addiction] and I really appreciated that.’
‘I was never somebody who struggled with any substances, but that’s because I was so aware of it because of my dad. He had a really big issue with cocaine and I was like, I’m never trying it because I’m just so scared that if I try it one time, it might lead into something else.’
Hailey has also praised both her parents – her mother is graphic designer Kennya Deodato Baldwin – for giving her a normal life out of the spotlight and allowing her to have a relatively normal childhood. But with perks where it matters of course, like being introduced to teen heartthrob Justin Bieber at the height of his fame.
Singer Justin, who is in the middle of the new scrutiny along with his wife, hasn’t said much about the Baldwin family but it appears they’ve always had a good relationship; it was Stephen who introduced the pair way back in 2009 when Justin was performing on the Today show, and a decade later Justin asked Stephen for permission to ask Hailey for her hand in marriage.
But away from Stephen and Hailey, the very public dramas of the Baldwins are often intertwined with their own familial relationships, and have gone on for decades. This is a dynasty forever on a knife-edge of in-fighting and Scan**l.
Alec is in the middle of a manslaughter case after a gun he was holding went off during the filming of western movie Rust, The first charge was dismissed, but was refiled in 2024; he has maintained his innocence, insisting he was unaware the weapon was loaded, but could face 18 months in prison if found guilty.
But one of Alec’s first public bust-ups was on the day he was bringing his newborn daughter Ireland home from hospital, when he allegedly punched a photographer outside his home.
And, just over a decade after that, amid his divorce from Ireland’s mother Kim Basinger and ensuing custody difficulties, he left a now-infamous voicemail to his then 11-year-old daughter, calling her a ‘rotten little pig, a rude, thoughtless little pig,’ and that he would ‘straighten her out’.
The backlash was swift and horrified; for years it was the first thing people thought of when they heard Alec’s name. But he swanned back into good grace as one of the lead characters of Tina Fey’s sitcom 30 Rock.
Alec himself apologised for the ‘improper and inappropriate’ message, and Ireland later got revenge of sorts when she used the line back on him at his 2019 Comedy Central Roast, and joked she hadn’t checked her voicemails in 12 years.
It appears he and Ireland have a relatively good relationship now – and she’s spoken several times of her admiration for his second wife, her stepmother Hilaria Baldwin.
Even marrying into the Baldwin family appears to bring on the so-called ‘curse’ of controversy: Hilaria’s own highly-publicised Scan**l was as bizarre as it was massive, setting the internet alight for months when it first came to light in 2020.
She was forced to confront speculation that she was faking her Spanish accent,once even appearing to forget the English word for ‘cucumber’ despite being born and spending most of her childhood in Boston; her white American parents moved to Spain in 2011 when she was in her 20s. Her first name is also, actually, Hillary.
The public and celebrities alike flocked to mock the situation, with Kathy Griffin saying ‘if we can decide to be the ethnicity of where our parents took us on summer vacations, then I have a Saugatuckian accent as a descendant of a long line of Michiganders’ – and Catfish host Nev Schulman said ‘on this weeks episode of #catfish, we help @AlecBaldwin find out if @hilariabaldwin really is who she says she is… ‘
Her response, after an absolute monster of a social media tidal wave reaction, was to call culture ‘fluid’, and insisted she had never pretended she was born in Spain or had Spanish blood.
Even everyday issues experienced by families everywhere regardless of whether they’re award-winning Hollywood stars, the Baldwins’ tit-for-tat public disagreements drew public controversy.
In 2015 ahead of the US presidential election, Stephen – who is a Republican as he believes the party aligns more with his Christian faith – voiced his support Donald Trump, saying ‘if my father were alive today (a veteran) He would be ashamed and disgusted of media biased and manipulation by people like Anderson Cooper’.
Billy hit back on the site, claiming ‘if our father were alive today, he’d smack you in the side of the head for supporting Donald Trump.’
As a side note, Billy previously claimed Trump had made a pass at his wife Chynna – which she turned down, or in Billy’s words ‘showed his fat ass the door’.
So perhaps not exactly an everyday family issue.
The Baldwins have been making headlines for their public spats and legal issues essentially since they first emerged as actors, and they’ve been mocked by everyone from Amy Schumer to Family Guy.
However, their dynasty hasn’t fallen yet.
And with everything else that’s happened, Stephen’s plea for prayers for Hailey and her reported annoyance is just a drop in the pond.
