Entertainment

Alec Baldwin on being a father later in life: I wish I had more time

The Hollywood star said he has made his children a priority and that he was ‘hungry to be a father again’.
The Hollywood star said he has made his children a priority and that he was ‘hungry to be a father again’. The Hollywood star said he has made his children a priority and that he was ‘hungry to be a father again’.

Alec Baldwin has said that he wishes he had more time in life, particularly regarding his young children.

The Hollywood star, 61, has four children between the ages of six and one with wife Hilaria, as well as 24-year-old daughter Ireland from his previous marriage to Kim Basinger.

Asked about becoming a father again later in life, Baldwin told the Observer Magazine: “It’s frustrating. I sit there, with some regularity, driving in a car, or whenever I have a moment to breathe.

“And I sit there and I think: ‘You know what? I wish I had more time.’

“There’s drawbacks to my kids, me being this age. But there are benefits, too.

“I’m there. I’ve made them a priority. It’s made me much more mindful: ‘How do I make the most of my time with them?’”

The film and TV star said he wishes he had “10 extra years”, adding: “I wish I was 50.

“But, y’know, life. There is no pause button. There is no reverse button.”

Baldwin – known for TV series 30 Rock, films including The Aviator and The Departed, and for his impersonations of Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live – said he was keen to have children again after meeting yoga teacher Hilaria, 35, in 2011.

He said he was “hungry to be a father again” and that this time he “wanted to know these people”.

Of his previously-strained relationship with his eldest daughter, Baldwin said: “If you did an analysis of the actual days I spent with Ireland (when she was growing up), you’d be appalled at how little it was.”

Baldwin and his wife were expecting their fifth child together until earlier this month, when Mrs Baldwin revealed she had suffered a miscarriage.

Baldwin next appears in the film Motherless Brooklyn, a neo-noir crime film directed by Edward Norton.