Hilaria Baldwin is opening up about how she and stepdaughter Ireland navigate their 11-year age gap.
On the March 23 episode of The Baldwins, Hilaria, 41, discussed how they take the age difference in stride.
“My relationship with Ireland is, I feel like it’s unique for a stepmom and stepdaughter relationship, because that’s technically what we are,” the mother of seven explained. “But first of all, I’m 11 years older than her. I didn’t raise her, and we find tremendous humor in that, and we always have found tremendous humor.”
Hilaria went on to explain how their dynamic has evolved as they welcomed their children only 11 months apart. Hilaria and husband Alec Baldwin welcomed youngest daughter Ilaria Catalina Irena in September 2022 while Ireland, 29, gave birth to her first baby Holland with boyfriend RAC (born André Allen Anjos) in May 2023.
“I haven’t seen Ireland in a long time because we live so far and we both had babies, and even though Alec met his new baby granddaughter, I haven’t met Holland until this little trip,” she said, referring to Ireland’s trip to New York. “We FaceTime all the time, we talk all the time, but we haven’t actually met up. And so we got all the kids together for a play date this morning.”
“It’s so wonderful, because we were pregnant together, but just barely,” she added. “So my baby is almost nine months older than Ireland’s baby, but my baby is Holland’s aunt, and Holland is my baby’s niece.”
Hilaria explained that Ireland — who Alec shares with ex-wife Kim Basinger — has always welcomed her with open arms and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Before I was her stepmother, when I met her, I first had a conversation with Alec, and I said, you know, if she doesn’t like me, I’m not staying ‘cause I’m not going to be wicked stepmother,” she recalled, adding how “my place in life is not to come into a family and cause problems.”
She shared that she told Alec at the time, “I love you, and I’m loving our relationship, but I have too much respect for the family” to stay if Ireland didn’t accept her. But, that wasn’t an issue because Ireland is “such an amazing person,” Hilaria said.
She added, “She immediately welcomed me. It was so easy. We’ve never fought.”
“I was very lucky that I came into their family. Kim, Alec and Ireland were at a place where everybody had moved on, and there was a place of being settled,” she said, referring to Kim and Alec’s difficult divorce in 2002. “So I got very lucky.”
Of Ireland, she explained, “She has a mom that she has a very good relationship with, and so my job wasn’t to come in and parent.”
Back in 2019, Hilaria reflected on building a strong relationship with Ireland after her parents’ divorce.
“We have had a great relationship,” she told PEOPLE at the time. “There’s obviously things in the past … with her parents, they’ve suffered, and I don’t get involved in that. I think that’s one of the smartest things I’ve ever done. I’m here, everybody knows that I love them and I care about them and if they need me I’m here, and I’m never going to put my nose where my nose doesn’t belong.”
Hilaria also recalled becoming part of Alec and Ireland’s life when she was 27 and Ireland was still a teenager. She says she spoke to Ireland at the time, saying, “‘If this is not okay, I’m not gonna stay, and that’s just out of respect for you and your dad and your mom, but also for me.’ ”
“I was not ready to step into something that was gonna be extraordinarily dramatic,” she explained. “I’m a big believer that love is love, but love is also timing and situation. If the situation wasn’t right, then it wasn’t gonna be right for me.”
“There are people who have very small children or the ex-wife still has feelings for the husband. All of these different things where, that was not my situation whatsoever,” she added. “So I really stepped into the situation when the timing was right, if that makes sense.”
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The Baldwins airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
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