Alec Baldwin - Baldwin: 'Custody Battle Is Like Cancer'

ALEC BALDWIN is struggling to cope with his bitter custody battle with ex-wife KIM BASINGER and has described the ordeal as like a "cancer".

The actor admits he is learning to deal with the emotional tug-of-love war over their daughter IRELAND - because he fears the violence it has provoked in him.

He tells The New York Post, "It's like being diagnosed with cancer. Something I realise I have to live with.

"But I'm keeping things in perspective. Not letting it consume me and eat me up with anger as it used to. I stopped that when one late night I was on the street so unhappy and filled with rage that, in a fit, I smashed my phone against a lamppost.

"A black lady walking by said to me, 'Alec Baldwin, you got to get hold of yourself.' So I have."