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Ireland Baldwin kept teenage rape secret


Ireland Baldwin was raped while "completely unconscious" as a teenager.
The 26-year-old model kept the traumatic experience largely to herself "for years" and sent her into a downward spiral of drinking, self-medicating and toxic relationships, but opened up about what happened to her on TikTok over the weekend while contemplating the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which will allow many states to restrict or make abortion illegal.
She said: "I am only now sharing my story because I want other women to feel supported and loved, whether they want to share their own story or not.
"I'm not here to tell this story today, but I was raped when I was a teenager, and I was completely unconscious when it happened, and it changed the course of the rest of my life.
"I never told anyone at the time, not for years. The only person who knew was a nurse that treated me shortly after. And I didn't even tell my own boyfriend at the time. Not my parents. No one.
"I drank a lot more, I partied a lot more, I self-medicated. I was in other abusive and toxic relationships and friendships. I pretty much did everything I could to distract myself."
Seeing "brave" women share their own experiences online prompted Ireland to contemplate the "traumatising and impossible" situation she could have been in if she had got pregnant at the time.
She said: "Seeing so many other brave women share their stories, got me thinking what my life would have been like if I had become pregnant, and if I had to raise a baby during everything I was going through at the time.
"Mind you, I have medical resources, money and support that a lot of women do not have access to.
"It would have simply been traumatising and impossible."
Ireland - who is the daughter of Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger - went on to recall a time she did have an abortion because she was in a "very unhappy" relationship and she doesn't regret her choice.
She said: "Flash forward to another point in my life when I did have a boyfriend, and I did become pregnant. At that point in time, I would say we were very unhappy together.
"And he made it clear that he never wanted kids or marriage. He barely wanted to be in a serious relationship.
"I chose to get an abortion because I know exactly what it felt like to be born between two people who hated each other.
"Could I have had that baby and put that baby up for adoption? Maybe. Maybe not.
"But choosing to raise a baby without my own financial security, without a loving and supportive partner, that wasn't gonna work for me.
"I chose me, and I would choose me again. It's your life, it's your choice."