Alec Baldwin claims he was stunned when Hilaria Thomas agreed to marry him

The 55-year-old '30 Rock' star - whose Spanish wife is expecting their first child - admits he had almost given up on the idea of finding happiness until he met the 29-year-old yoga instructor but was worried she would not be able to handle their 26 year age gap.

He told the Sunday Times Magazine: "When someone's much younger, you wonder, are they going to turn and go, 'What? Oh no, we won't be doing that...'

"You arrive at this point where you go, I've got to marry her! There really is no choice. I am never, never, never, never, never, going to meet someone like this again. I really must do this."

Alec explained that he finally stopped caring about their age gap after Hilaria, who he wed last year, lost her temper with him.

He said: "There was this funny moment when I said to her, you know, when a man dates someone he has this kind of line, 'Do you date someone who's 25, 21, 19? Where is the line?' And she turned to me and she goes 'I am the line.' And I went 'that's it.'

"She was ready. (She) had dated a lot of people. She went to China and she went to Europe and she would do it with these ballroom-dancing troupes, these shows, with some guy who's running his hands all over your body, three, four, hours a day. She was ready for something else."

Alec, who was previously married to actress Kim Basinger, with whom he shares 17-year-old daughter Ireland, now feels like he has "the one thing that's eluded me my whole life, and that is a happy home."

He added: "I never had a happy home. I never had a happy home where, four days out of seven, you walk in the door and you know that what's on the other side of that door is wonderful, someone you want to see and you're going to have dinner together."