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

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

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

“I love English, I also love Spanish, and when I mix the two it doesn’t make me inauthentic, and when I mix the two, that makes me normal,” Hilaria says during the Feb. 23 episode, per People. “I’d be lying if I said [the controversy] didn’t make me sad and it didn’t hurt and it didn’t put me in dark places.”

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 ‘Rise Of The Guardians’ held at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, USA on November 4, 2012. Photo credit: depositphotos.com

She continued, “But 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 that’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.”

The 41-year-old emphasized that this cultural blending is “normal” and is “called being human,” while firmly stating that she’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 Foundation’s 13th Annual An Enduring Vision Benefit, Cipriani Wall Street, New York, NY October 28, 2014. Photo credit: depositphotos.comt Collection.

“I’m raising my kids to be bilingual, I was raised bilingual,” Hilaria says. “My family—all my nuclear family—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.”

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

“If I’ve been speaking a lot of Spanish, I tend to mix them and if I’m speaking more English…then I mix that,” she said in an emotional Instagram video at the time. “It’s one of those things that’s always been a little bit, I’ve been a little insecure about.”

Alec Baldwin, Hilaria Baldwin “Framing John DeLorean” premiere at Tribeca Film Festival — New York, NY, USA – April 30, 2019: Alec Baldwin and Hilaria attend premiere of “Framing John DeLorean” during 2019 Tribeca Film Festival at SVA Theater, Manhattan. Photo credit: depositphotos.com

“I try to speak more clearly in each language,” Hilaria added. “I think that that’s something that I should try to do but sometimes I mess it up and it’s not something that I’m like, playing at, so I want that to be very, very, very clear.”

LINK LOVE

Andrew Garfield and Monica Barbaro were the cutest couple at Wimbledon. [Celebitchy]
Rachel Brosnahan bet it all on black in London [Go Fug Yourself]
Suicide Is Painless: A review of Riot Act starring David Mills. [Boy Culture]
Maggie Q is more than a worthy successor to Harry Bosch in Amazon Prime’s Ballard. [Pajiba]
Matteo Berrettini wasted no time taking off his whites. [Kenneth in the 212]