Alec Baldwin defends wife Hilaria's heritage after cultural appropriation accusations
The yoga/wellness expert revealed she was born in America, not Spain
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hilaria Baldwin and her husband, Alec Baldwin, defended her identity on social media after it was revealed she was born in Boston, Mass., not Spain, as she had previously claimed.
The 36-year-old yoga/wellness expert reacted to a tweet over the weekend, which said, "You have to admire Hilaria Baldwin’s commitment to her decade long grift where she impersonates a Spanish person." The tweet has since been deleted.
Hilaria Baldwin has claimed she was born in Mallorca, Spain, and raised in Boston. She explained on a podcast in April 2020, "I moved here [to America] when I was 19 to go to NYU from… my family lives in Spain, they live in Mallorca." The bilingual mother of five's accent has also noticeably fluctuated over the years when she made appearances on TV.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Meanwhile, her CAA speaker page, Wikipedia and IMDB page all list her birth country as Spain. But Twitter users soon pointed out that her real name is Hillary Hayword-Thomas and she grew up in America.
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One person said, "I went to HS with Hillary Hayward Thomas in Boston and she had no accent."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hilaria addressed the criticism online in a video. "There have been some questions about where I’m born, I’m born in Boston … I spent some of my childhood in Boston, some of my childhood in Spain, my family, my brother, my parents, my nephew, everybody is over there in Spain now, I’m here," she explained.
Hilaria Baldwin revealed she was born in Boston, not Spain. (Getty Images)
Her parents left America in 2011 and currently live in Mallorca.
As for her accent, she said, "I am that person, if I’ve been speaking a lot of Spanish, I tend to mix them or if I’m speaking a lot of English I mix that, it’s one of those things I’ve always been a bit insecure about."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But she clarified, her accent is "not something I’m playing at… I want that to be very, very clear."
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As for her name change, she reasoned, "When I was growing up, in this country I would use the name Hillary, and in Spain, I would use Hilaria and my family, my parents, call me Hilaria."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She continued, "Ultimately, this boils down to this idea where this is a country of a lot of different cultures and I think that we can be different parts of ourselves with different people... I am somebody who I feel really lucky that I grew up with two cultures, I grew up speaking two languages."
Alec Baldwin defended his wife, Hilaria, after trolls slammed her for cultural appropriation. (Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Hilaria reasoned, "Yes, I am a White girl, my family is White … Europe has a lot of White people in them. Ethnically I am a mix of many, many things."
"I’m getting attacked for being who I am…people wanting to label me Spanish or America, can’t it be both? It’s frustrating that is my story," she concluded.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A rep for Hilaria Baldwin didn't immediately return Fox News' request for comment.
Alec Baldwin also stood up for his wife online after she was accused of cultural appropriation.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Just a lot of s--t," the 62-year-old "30 Rock" star said on Instagram. "You have to kind of hack your way through the debris of Twitter. Twitter is just a vast orchard of crap. And I have certainly slung some crap in that orchard myself every now and then with things I’ve said. So, that’s not lost on me that I’m guilty of that as well."
Her stepdaughter, Ireland Baldwin, also defended her and slammed her detractors as "sad and pathetic."
"She’s a caring person who has always respected my relationship with my dad and I have a great relationship with her. … Hilaria is a wonderful mother who takes great care of her kids and she takes great care of my dad and that’s really all that matters to me," Ireland Baldwin said.
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"I’m sorry that people are giving you such a hard time during a time that is already so f--king difficult for everyone in this world coping with the realities of Covid and being without family over the holidays and even losing family during the holidays due to this madness… I know who you are and I know what you are not and I’m lucky to know you for who you truly are," the 25-year-old added.