Hilaria Baldwin defends herself against ‘fake’ Spanish accent accusations: ‘That makes me normal’

Hilaria Baldwin at arrivals for American Museum Of Natural Historyรญs 2016 Museum Gala, The American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY November 17, 2016. Photo By: Jason Smith/Everett Collection
Photo credit: depositphotos.com

Hilaria Baldwin is addressing the controversy surrounding claims that her Spanish accent is fabricated.

The yoga instructor from Bostonโ€”who is mother to Carmen, 11, Rafael, 9, Leonardo, 8, Romeo, 6, Eduardo and Marilu, both 4 and Ilaria, 2, with spouse Alec Baldwinโ€”tackles the questions about her cultural background, and accent in the first episode of her familyโ€™s new TLC reality series The Baldwins.

โ€œI love English, I also love Spanish, and when I mix the two it doesnโ€™t make me inauthentic, and when I mix the two, that makes me normal,โ€ Hilaria says during the Feb. 23 episode, per People. โ€œIโ€™d be lying if I said [the controversy] didnโ€™t make me sad and it didnโ€™t hurt and it didnโ€™t put me in dark places.โ€

Alec Baldwin, Hilaria Baldwin 2012 AFI FEST Gala Screening of 'Rise Of The Guardians'
Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Thomas at the 2012 AFI FEST Gala Screening of โ€˜Rise Of The Guardiansโ€™ held at the Graumanโ€™s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, USA on November 4, 2012. Photo credit: depositphotos.com

She continued, โ€œBut it was my family, my friends, my community who speak multiple languages, who have belonged in multiple places and realize that we are a mix of all these different things and thatโ€™s going to have an impact on how we sound and an impact on how we articulate things and the words that we choose and our mannerisms.โ€

The 41-year-old emphasized that this cultural blending is โ€œnormalโ€ and is โ€œcalled being human,โ€ while firmly stating that sheโ€™s transmitting her diverse heritage to her children.

Alec Baldwin, Hilaria Baldwin at arrivals for Elton John AIDS Foundation's 13th Annual An Enduring Vision Benefit, Cipriani Wall Street, New York, NY October 28, 2014. Photo By: Gregorio T. Binuya/Everett Collection
Alec Baldwin, Hilaria Baldwin at arrivals for Elton John AIDS Foundationโ€™s 13th Annual An Enduring Vision Benefit, Cipriani Wall Street, New York, NY October 28, 2014. Photo credit: depositphotos.comt Collection.

โ€œIโ€™m raising my kids to be bilingual, I was raised bilingual,โ€ Hilaria says. โ€œMy familyโ€”all my nuclear familyโ€”now lives over in Spain. I want to teach my kids pride in speaking more than one language. I think just growing up and speaking two languages is extremely special.โ€

The mother of seven initially responded to the speculation shortly after it gained widespread attention in late 2020.

โ€œIf Iโ€™ve been speaking a lot of Spanish, I tend to mix them and if Iโ€™m speaking more Englishโ€ฆthen I mix that,โ€ she said in an emotional Instagram video at the time. โ€œItโ€™s one of those things thatโ€™s always been a little bit, Iโ€™ve been a little insecure about.โ€

Alec Baldwin, Hilaria Baldwin โ€œFraming John DeLoreanโ€ premiere at Tribeca Film Festival
New York, NY, USA โ€“ April 30, 2019: Alec Baldwin and Hilaria attend premiere of โ€œFraming John DeLoreanโ€ during 2019 Tribeca Film Festival at SVA Theater, Manhattan. Photo credit: depositphotos.com

โ€œI try to speak more clearly in each language,โ€ Hilaria added. โ€œI think that thatโ€™s something that I should try to do but sometimes I mess it up and itโ€™s not something that Iโ€™m like, playing at, so I want that to be very, very, very clear.โ€


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