Duration: Together 10 years; married 7 years
Ages: 43 and 47
Previous pairings: Baldwin dated Ally Sheedy, Michelle Pfeiffer and Northern Exposure‘s Janine Turner, whom he left practically at the altar; after Basinger‘s divorce from makeup artist Ron Britton, her brief late-’80s affair with rock star Prince became the stuff tabloid stories were made of.
Love story: Appropriately enough, the couple’s relationship started on the set of 1991’s The Marrying Man–which flopped. Reports swirled about their prima donna behavior on that set, which allegedly included the delay of many a scene while the stars were ensconced in a trailer, blatant sexual exhibitionism during their scenes together, and Baldwin‘s penchant for throwing things such as cell phones and director’s chairs.
What went wrong? Temper, temper … though the official reason given in the paperwork was “irreconcilable differences,” seems like Basinger‘s just fed up with hot-blooded Irish Catholic Baldwin‘s short fuse. Remember back in 1995 when he got sued for punching a paparazzo attempting to photograph the couple’s newborn daughter? What about the incident last December when he was seen verbally attacking Basinger outside a Long Island restaurant? Basinger‘s father is on record as saying she wouldn’t put up with the verbal abuse after their daughter started seeing it, and Baldwin dropped out of counseling.
Post-split romance: None
What they’ve said: Baldwin‘s crushed. “It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me …. I mean, I still love my wife more than anybody and I’m devastated this has happened,” he told Biography magazine. “People come up and say, ‘You’re young, maybe you’ll meet someone else,’ and I think that’s just the most kind of unimaginable thing in the world to me.” He compares Basinger filing for divorce in January to “someone punching me in the stomach as hard as they could right before I had to go run the marathon.” For her part, Basinger‘s letting her dad do the talking.
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