Alec And Ireland Baldwin
Calling his then-11-year-old daughter Ireland a "thoughtless little pig" during a stinging 2006 voicemail led many to believe Alec Baldwin was an unfit father. But the newly married actor has an unlikely supporter: Ireland herself. Reuters

Calling his then-11-year-old daughter Ireland a "thoughtless little pig" during a stinging 2006 voicemail led many to believe Alec Baldwin was an unfit father. But the newly married actor has an unlikely supporter: Ireland herself.

The daughter of Baldwin and actress Kim Basinger defended the "30 Rock" star during an interview with the New York Post's Page Six Magazine.

"I've always had a really great relationship with my dad," Ireland, now 16, told the magazine. "The only problem with that voicemail was that people made it out to be a way bigger deal than it was. He's said stuff like that before just because he's frustrated. For me it was like, 'OK, whatever.' I called him back, I was like, 'Sorry, Dad, I didn't have my phone.' That was it."

The leaked voicemail of Baldwin calling Ireland a "thoughtless little pig" did more than just damage the actor's public persona. The "Rock of Ages" star lost visitation right to Ireland for about a year, according to Page Six Magazine.

"You are a rude, thoughtless little pig. You don't have the brains or the decency as a human being," Baldwin told his then-11-year-old daughter in the voicemail, the Daily Mail reported at the time. "I don't give a damn that you're 12 years old, or 11 years old, or that you're a child, or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the a-- who doesn't care about what you do as far as I'm concerned. Once again I have made an ass of myself trying to get to a phone. You have humiliated me for the last time with this phone."

Baldwin, 54, married his yoga instructor girlfriend, Hilaria Thomas, 28, in June.

Despite their relative closeness in age (the Page Six Magazine story said Thomas and Ireland could be sisters,) Ireland gets along well with her new stepmother.

She told the magazine she'll be homeschooled this year so she can be closer to Baldwin and his new wife.

"I didn't want to go my senior year without spending time with my dad," Ireland said. "And Hilaria and I are really close. She's like a big sister to me, but I feel like I haven't spent enough time with her yet. We have a lot more to learn about each other and we have a lot more experiences to have together. We joke around and I call her 'Mom.' But I respect her, it's not like I'm Parent Trap-ping her, setting up booby traps in her room."

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