They weren’t taking any chances.
In the third episode of their TLC reality series “The Baldwins” (airing Sundays at 10 p.m.), Alec and Hilaria Baldwin open up more about their feelings around the actor’s “Rust” trial.
On-screen, Hilaria, 41, reveals that when she flew out to New Mexico to support Alec, 66, at the trial, leaving five of their 7 kids at home with a friend, “I wrote [the kids] all little letters… and I hid them. I told my friend [who was babysitting] where they were if something happened to us.”
She didn’t elaborate on what she thought might happen.
In 2021, Alec was holding a prop gun during a rehearsal for a scene in the Western movie “Rust” when it discharged, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring the director Joel Souza.
The “30 Rock” star, who is also a producer on “Rust,” has maintained that he didn’t pull the trigger that fatally shot Hutchins and wasn’t aware that the gun was loaded with live bullets. He was charged with involuntary manslaughter, but the case was dismissed in July 2024 on the grounds that prosecutors withheld evidence that could have been beneficial in the star’s defense.
Prosecutors ultimately dropped their appeal of the ruling last December.
Text on-screen in “The Baldwins” explains, “Even though the case was dismissed, Alec still faces potential appeals as well as civil cases. He is prohibited from speaking about the case.”
Alec has since said that he still struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder from the tragedy and he wanted to kill himself after the shooting.
Hilaria recalls on-screen that when she went to New Mexico to support Alec at the July 2024 trial, she flew in on a Monday night and was supposed to return to their East Hamptons, New York, home to their kids that Wednesday.
“But I realized that I can’t leave. Alec needs me,” she said, adding that she provided “really, really vital emotional support.”
The former yoga instructor and the actor have been married since 2012. They’re parents of Carmen, 11, Rafael, 9, Leonardo, 8, Romeo, 6, Eduardo and Marilu, 4, and Ilaria, 2.
Alec and ex-wife Kim Basinger are also parents of daughter Ireland, 29.
“The Baldwins” showcases their home life with their children, and their reactions to the “Rust” trial. Hilaria has also addressed criticism that her Spanish accent is fake, and that she’s a gold digger.
“This was not a win. This was just an awful thing that happened to people,” she said in her on-screen confessional after the case was dismissed. “There was an awful thing that happened. The hardest thing about this is that a woman lost her life. A son lost his mom. Halyna didn’t get to go home. And that’s what makes everything so painful.”
Later in the episode, Alec and Hiliaria visit a therapist together. Alec says that he now easily loses his train of thought because he’s “very traumatized.”
The “Beetlejuice” star added that “it changes you” to live nearly three years of feeling pain, anger and upset between the 2021 “Rust” shooting and the 2024 trial.
“I had an emotional mental, neurological inability to focus and to concentrate. And that’s not me. I have a photographic memory,” he said, explaining that he used to be able to quickly memorize a two-page monologue on “30 Rock” within a short timespan.
But due to the “trauma” from the “Rust” trial, he said, “My memory is shot, I can’t remember anything anymore.”
He’s also debating a family move “outside of New York” due to all the “the stress and pressure of public life.”
