Hilaria Baldwin says she never lied about her ethnicity in new interview

After it was revealed this week that the oft-dubbed “Spaniard” Hilaria Baldwin, who is a social media influencer and the wife of actor Alec Baldwin, was not actually born in Spain, nor can boast any Spanish blood, the conversation on social media became one of cultural appropriation. Remember Rachel Dolezal? While hubby Alec, and step-daughter Ireland, flocked to Hilaria’s defence, social media did some digging of its own, and came up with more questions. Why did she change her name from Hillary to Hilaria? Why, if she was raised in Boston, did she grant interviews with ¡Hola! Magazine, and others that printed she was born in Mallorca? Why was her accent floating in and out? Why did she forget how to say “cucumber”?

On Wednesday morning, The New York Times published a new interview with the mom of five, asking all those pointed questions and more. And according to Hilaria, she has always been honest about where she comes from, and the confusion surrounding her ethnicity comes from a miscommunication with her agency and PR reps. 

“There is not something I’m doing wrong, and I think there is a difference between hiding and creating a boundary,” the told The Times. 

“The things I have shared about myself are very clear,” Hilaria said. “I was born in Boston. I spent time in Boston and in Spain. My family now lives in Spain. I moved to New York when I was 19 years old and I have lived here ever since. For me, I feel like I have spent 10 years sharing that story over and over again. And now it seems like it’s not enough.”

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Insisting that Alec and everyone around her always knew that was born in the US, the Times very astutely pointed out in the article that there have been incidents where he told the public she was Spanish, which of course lends itself to the idea that she has been lying about her ethnicity. One such incident occurred in 2013, when Alec Baldwin told David Letterman during an appearance on The Late Show that his wife is “from Spain” before imitating her accent.

Hilaria chalked up the mentions of her being Spanish in ¡Hola! Magazine, which has written about her 20 times and for which she posed twice for their cover, as an oversight, claiming that she doesn’t read articles written about her.

And as for that Today show incident where she displayed confusion over the English word for “cucumber,” to her that was just a “brain fart.” She even called the Twitter thread that first brought attention to her “grift” as fake news. “Fake Twitter accounts accusing me of a fake identity!” she exclaimed in the interview. 

“You are entitled to your privacy,” she said, referencing social media and the non-celebs who use it. “I am entitled to my privacy. People say, ‘No, you’re not entitled to your privacy because you married a famous person and you have Instagram.’ Well, that’s not really true."

The Times also made of point of publishing that they had chosen to withhold the identity of the creator of the original Twitter thread because the person was scared that Alec Baldwin, who has a history of violence, would “punch” them. 

“Who is to say what you’re allowed to absorb and not absorb growing up?” Hilaria continued in the interview, after it was pointed out that she called visiting Spain “going home” in some of her social media posts. Explaining that her life has been dually spent in the US and Spain, she called growing up in the two cultures a “mishmash” before wondering to the reporter if “mishmash” was indeed the correct word (much like her “brain fart” over the world “cucumber”).

“This has been a part of my whole life,” she said, “and I can’t make it go away just because some people don’t understand it.”

When the article was published online, readers of the Times and social media alike had a field day with her explanations and excuses. 

Still, Hilaria insisted that her choice to be a bit evasive with her background was to protect the boundaries of her family, especially her parents and children.

“My intentions are I’m living my life and my life is created by my parents, my different experiences, my languages, my culture and, yeah, my kids do have very Spanish-influenced names,” she said of her five children with Alec, noting earlier in the interview that she speaks Spanish with her children at home. 

“There is a reason this conversation is happening right now,” she said, remarking that she takes cultural appropriation very seriously, but that this wasn’t an example of it. “These are important conversations to have. But as people are able to come out as different parts of themselves and how they identify and have people listen, I think that’s extremely important.”

For now, it would seem Hilaria’s explanations have raised more eyebrows and questions, rather than providing answers. It will also be interesting to see whether or not Saturday Night Live, where Alec is a regular guest performer, will poke fun at this whole situation when they come back from the holiday break.

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