Alec Baldwin made headlines when a voicemail in which he referred to his daughter Ireland, who was 11 at the time, as a “rude, thoughtless little pig,” leaked in 2007.

Baldwin expressed regret for leaving his daughter an angry message, blaming it on the strain of his custody battle with Kim Basinger while adamantly stating, “I have a normal relationship with my daughter.”

The actor posted an apology on his website, saying, “I’m sorry, as everyone who knows me is aware, for losing my temper with my child.”

“I have been driven to the edge by parental alienation for many years now. You have to go through this to understand. (Although I hope you never do.) I am sorry for what happened,” he added.

In his memoir “Nevertheless,” Baldwin recalled the incident and stated that it caused a “permanent break” in their relationship – something he blamed on the media.

In an interview with George Stephanopoulos that aired on “Good Morning America” on Monday, Baldwin, 59, said, “There are people who admonish me or attack me and use that as a constant spearhead to do that.”

He added, “It’s a scab that never heals cause it’s being picked at all the time by other people. My daughter, that’s hurt her in a permanent way.”

He and Ireland have since repaired their relationship
Credit: Rex Features

The now-infamous voicemail was played in court when Baldwin and his ex-wife Kim Basinger were fighting over custody. Baldwin raged at his daughter in it: “You don’t have the brains or the decency as a human being. … 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 ass 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.”

The 59-year-old claimed that ten years later, his remarks still trouble him.

Alec claims that although they have subsequently patched things up, his remarks will remain with them forever.

Baldwin was enraged because Ireland, who lived in Los Angeles with her mother Kim Basinger, didn’t pick up the phone when she knew he was going to call from New York.

He then threatened to fly to Los Angeles “for the day, just to straighten you out on this issue.”

Basinger was listed as “the only parent with custody, possession, and control of the minor child’s telephone voicemail message” in documents filed by Baldwin’s attorneys, which asked the court to look into the source of the leak.

Ireland and Alec have mostly patched things up.

In 2015, she shared a photo of herself and Alec on Instagram reading a book called “If I Were a Pig,” writing, “If I were a pig … I would be rude and thoughtless, of course!”

Ireland’s mother Kim Basinger and Baldwin were wed from 1993 to 2002.

Alec is currently married to Hilaeia Baldwin, and the two of them have three children together: Carmen, age three, Rafael, age almost two, and Leonardo, age six months.