Ireland Baldwin Reveals Phobia That Has Hospitalized Her 20 Times

Ireland Baldwin has opened up about a unique phobia that plagues her and many others – and how she has learned to live with it. In a new episode of Red Table Talk, the 26-year-old explained that she has cardiophobia, which is essentially fear of one’s own heartbeat. A preview of the interview has been published by Entertainment Tonight.

Baldwin shares her story with Red Table Talk co-host Willow Smith in the new clip. Smith starts it off on a light note by admitting that she had never heard of cardiophobia before, and presumably the audience hasn’t either. However, she also doesn’t downplay Baldwin’s situation, saying: “You’re like, ‘What is that?’ I didn’t know either until I did a lot of research for a very long time.”

Baldwin sums the condition up by saying that, essentially, “I have a fear of my own heartbeat.” A more detailed breakdown by the medical journal Behavior Change explains that “cardiophobic persons repeatedly present with complaints of chest pain and heart palpitations accompanied by fears of having a heart attack and of dying.” This is why Baldwin has been hospitalized several times now.

“When it starts getting really fast, even when I’m slightly nervous or if I exercise or anything, I start panicking to the point where I’m convinced, no matter what anyone says, that I’m going to have a heart attack and I have to go to a hospital,” Baldwin said. “I’ve had maybe over 20 hospital visits in my life.”

This is apparently just one portion of a larger interview between Baldwin and her mother, Kim Basinger on this week’s episode of Red Table Talk. The two have never given an interview together before, and with the recent tragic publicity around Baldwin’s father, the conversation is sure to get heated. On top of that, fans still have an eye on Red Table Talk for any mention of Will Smith’s dramatic outburst at the Oscars 2022 ceremony.

Red Table Talk airs exclusively on Facebook Watch. The new episode streamed on Wednesday, April 27 at 12 p.m. ET, and is now available to watch any time. Future episodes of Red Table Talk are expected to address the Smith family’s controversial Oscars moment in more detail. For now, Will Smith appears to be out of the country.