Alec Baldwin’s Hamptons House Was His ‘Safe Place’ During ‘Difficult Times’, Says Wife Hilaria

Before Alec Baldwin’s home became a set piece in his TLC reality show The Baldwins, it was the actor’s “safe place” during some dark times.

“This was Alec’s safe place for a long time before he met me,” Alec’s wife Hilaria Baldwin, 41, told the New York Times in an Aug. 29 feature. “A place he would come during very difficult times in his life: his divorce, a custody battle, everything.”

She added: “It has been a piece-by-piece process learning how to come together and create something here, which I think is normal in any relationship.”

Alec, 67, first bought the 11,000 sq. ft. Amagansett, N.Y., farmhouse for $1.75 million in 1995, according to the Times. It marked his second purchase in the affluent coastal town, the first being a small cottage south of Montauk Highway. 

“When I looked at this property, no one moved north of Montauk Highway and spent any money,” Alec said of his current residence, which was considered to be in a less desirable part of the Hamptons. “So when I bought it, I thought, I probably have to get rid of it because it was a mistake. But several years went by, and I’m like, ‘This is great. I love it because it’s private.’ ”

In 1996, Alec hired the architect Francis Fleetwood to expand the eastern portion of the home. That year, Alec also had a 20-by-50 foot pool installed in the backyard. 

At the time, he was married to his ex-wife Kim Basinger. The marriage lasted from 1993 to 2002 and along the way, they welcomed daughter Ireland, now 29, in 1995.

The couple’s public divorce lasted seven years. Alec temporarily lost visitation rights after an angry voicemail he left for Ireland surfaced. He later issued a public apology. 

In 2011, Alec and Hilaria met at Pure Food and Wine, a raw food and vegan restaurant in New York City, wed in 2012 and welcomed their first child in 2013. Then, they welcomed six more kids in the years to follow. Today, the couple shares seven children — Carmen, 12, Rafael, 10, Leonardo, 8, Romeo, 7, Eduardo, 4, Maria, 4 and Ilaria, 2.

The family, quickly expanding, requiring the home to expand as well.

After tying the knot, the couple hired architect Fred Throo to add an additional 1,400 sq. ft. — which included a large living room and en suite. This also marked the start of Hilaria’s transformation of the home, which began with the pantry.

“I picked the pantry because I didn’t think he was going to care,” she told the Times. “But he was furious.”

“That was the beginning of the whole thermonuclear reaction of you taking over the house,” Alec said. “She started out slowly, and then it was like a coup d’état.”

Today, the entire property includes five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a library, a basement movie theater turned playroom and an open-concept living area, all featured onThe Baldwins earlier this year.

Elsewhere, a Traeger Lil’ Pig free-standing pellet grill sits in the yard. The grill was a gift from Ireland a few years ago for Father’s Day. It was a subtle nod to Alec’s voicemail when he called her a “rude, thoughtless little pig.” 

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“She sent me that to commemorate some unusual moment we had together,” Alec said. “A couple of weeks ago, Ireland, her husband and her daughter came to visit. Hilaria and Ireland have a similar sense of humor, which is at my expense pretty uniformly. So, we brought it out and cooked on it.”

In 2022, the couple cancelled their plans to continue expanding their home so they could sell it, initially asking for $29 million. Alec even starred in a promotional real estate video touting its best features in hopes of finding a buyer in January 2024, when they had cut the asking price to $22.5 million. By July 2024, as the actor’s involuntary manslaughter trial began, the price was cut again to  $18.9 million.

Per the Times, they’ve now decided they want to hold onto the property after all.

“But we keep coming back here because the kids are very happy. They love it here. When I go up to the kids and go, ‘Want to sell the house?’, they go crazy,’” Alec said. “It’s a kid’s home that I never want to leave.” 

According to the report, the couple accepted an offer in 2024, but later changed their minds.