Ireland Baldwin says she’d never have been a model if it weren’t for her famous parents
‘You have a lot more to prove because you’re always going to have that comparison to your parents,’ she said
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Your support makes all the difference.Ireland Baldwin has revealed that she never would have been “scouted as a model” if it weren’t for her famous parents.
The 26-year-old is the daughter of actors Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, and began her modelling career in 2013, appearing in magazines such as Grazia.
Speaking today (27 April) on Facebook Watch’s Red Table Talk – hosted by Jada Pinkett Smith, her mother Adrienne Banfield Norris, and daughter Willow Smith – Ireland opened up about the additional pressure placed on her being a child of celebrities.
Speaking to Willow, she acknowledged: “I don’t think I ever would’ve been scouted as a model if it weren’t for who my parents are.”
She added: “You have a lot more to prove because you’re always going to have that comparison to your parents.
“Nothing makes me want to want to peel my fingernails off more than doing a Basinger Baldwin spread in a magazine and then facing the criticism and the comparisons.”
She explained that the amounting anxiety put her in the hospital over 20 times, due to cardiophobia, which is the fear of one’s own heartbeat.
When asked whether she felt modelling sparked greater body image issues, she responded: “It ruined my brain.” She then said she “already had so many body issues, eating disorders” before she started modelling.
Ireland further disclosed that she went through a period of feeling “lifeless” and credits her cousin Alaia Baldwin for saving her life.
“I think I would’ve committed suicide or I would have been dead. I was so close,” she said. “[Alaia] saved my life. She pulled me out of it.”
Red Table Talk airs Wednesdays on Facebook Watch.
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