Alec Baldwin Deactivates Twitter After Joke About Gillian Anderson 'Switching Accents'

The actor released a lengthy video on Thursday announcing his departure from the social media platform.

Alec Baldwin has left Twitter. The actor and father of seven made the announcement in a lengthy video posted to Instagram Wednesday night.

The 30 Rock star recorded the video on his phone, which appeared to be mounted to his car's center console, and he admitted that the decision came after backlash to a joke he recently made about Gillian Anderson.

Baldwin said the comment in question was just made to be ironic, but lamented, "Of course you can't do any irony on Twitter. You can't do any irony in the United States anymore, because the United States is such an uptight, stressed-out place and unpleasant place right now."

Recently, Baldwin joked about Anderson using her American accent during the Golden Globes on Sunday when she took home the award for her performance in The Crown, which confused many on Twitter who thought she was British and had a natural English accent.

Baldwin tweeted, "Switching accents? That sounds … fascinating," which seemed to be a veiled reference to the controversy surrounding his wife, Hilaria, and questions regarding her accent and cultural heritage.

While Baldwin specifically avoided mentioning Anderson by name, he apologized for any offense to her that his comment may have caused.

"The person I was referring to is someone I am a huge fan of.. and that comment was meant to just illustrate the point that multicultural expressions of anyone... that's your business," Baldwin said, adding that he truly meant no disrespect.

As for his decision to leave Twitter, Baldwin said it stemmed in the negativity that he feels is pervasive on the platform.

"The problem with Twitter is, it's a lot of haters. It's one-third interesting posts... one-third tedious, puerile nonsense, and then it's one-third abject hatred and malice and unpleasantness," he shared.

Toward the end of his lengthy post, Baldwin also addressed welcoming his daughter, Lucia, via surrogate

"The good thing about being an older dad is work is less important to me now, I don't really need to work too much right now. I've worked a lot... I've tried to balance that a lot with my wife and kids," Baldwin said, adding that having children has been "the most rewarding thing I've ever done."

"I love my children more than I could possibly put into words," he added.

Watch the video below for more on Baldwin's new baby girl.

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