Ireland Baldwin explains the traumatic event that triggered her cardiophobia: 'Never left my head'

Ireland Baldwin revealed the scary situation that triggered her cardiophobia, which manifests as an intense fear of having a heart attack.

The model, 26, appeared on Jada Pinkett Smith and Willow Smith’s Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk in which she discussed her lifelong battle with anxiety and other mental health issues. Baldwin, who is the daughter of Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin, shared that one of the most challenging aspects of managing her mental health is coping with her cardiophobia.

“I saw someone have a heart attack when I was a kid,” Baldwin explained to Willow on the talk show. “It was a stranger in a restaurant. That messed me up. I think that image never left my head, ever.”

The DJ has spoken about her cardiophobia before. In a January 2022 Instagram post, Baldwin shared a photo of herself with a blood pressure monitor. She wrote, “I am posting this for whoever suffers with anxiety and anxiety disorders like I do. I ordered a blood pressure monitor to accurately read my heart rate and blood pressure because I live in a constant fear that I’m dying from a heart attack… also known as cardiophobia. The heart palpitations and chest pain brought on by your typical anxiety attack convinces me that I am a 26 year old with an underlying heart condition that I don’t have.”

On Red Table Talk, Baldwin said that while she still uses her blood pressure monitor, what has also helped her is having people in her life who will listen to what she needs — even if that means going to the hospital because she believes she is having a heart attack.

“I’ve had friends, I’ve had boyfriends, who have had no clue how to manage my anxiety, and it would make me more anxious, because they didn’t understand, or they were very dismissive,” she recalled. “Now, I’m going to use my now-boyfriend, or my mom, as an example. If I tell them I want to go to the hospital, they don’t even question it, they drive me there."

Baldwin shared that her partner, musician Andre Allen Anjos, even drove her to the hospital last Christmas during a “horrible anxiety attack.”

“And just getting to the hospital, breathing in the parking lot, I was like, ‘I think I’m fine.’ And he was like, ‘OK. Let’s go home,’” she explained. “It’s like, not making it such a big deal, not making someone feel ashamed or embarrassed.”

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