Alec Baldwin Reveals He Contemplated Suicide After ‘Rust’ Shooting Incident

Alec Baldwin and his wife Hilaria are getting real about how the Rust film tragedy has impacted the actor’s mental health.

In the latest episode of their TLC reality show, The Baldwins, Hilaria, 41, recalled her husband, now 66, sending a frightening text in the aftermath of the shooting.

“I found these text messages the other day, between us, you know, the day after. And you know, he said he wanted to kill himself,” Hilaria shared with a friend. 

In October 2021, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died when a prop gun the actor was using discharged on the set of the western film. It was tapped with a live round. He reached an undisclosed settlement with Hutchins’ family in their wrongful death lawsuit. Hutchins left behind a husband and young son. Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter case was thrown out in August 2024.

“He has survivor’s guilt,” Hilaria said in a confessional. “You’re involved in this thing that nobody could even possibly imagine. And so it goes back to that day. He wishes it were him. He would change places in a second. This has affected his health, and his mental health tremendously. The past few years, all of the sudden he started having heart problems. He’s been hospitalized multiple times. He’s fainted… everybody’s just screaming, I’m going, I’m on top, and I’m shaking him. It’s hard sometimes. But hopefully we’re in the hardest, but tail end of it.” 

In the premiere episode, the couple spoke about Alec’s PTSD and other mental health issues that spiked after the incident. “This past year was just terrible,” Alec told his producers in his confessional. “There were times I’d lay in bed and I’d just go “I can’t get up.” And that’s not like me at all. I’m not like that in any way. Never.’”

Hilaria said, “Everyone who is close to Alec has seen his mental health decline. He was diagnosed with PTSD, and he says in his darkest moments, if an accident were to have happened this day why am I still here, why couldn’t it have been me?’” She added that watching Alec’s change in personality was “painful.”