MEAWW.COM / NEWS / CELEBRITY NEWS

Is Hilaria Baldwin Hispanic? Alec Baldwin's wife claps back after being accused of faking Spanish accent

A troll called out Hilaria Baldwin's commitment to her 'decade long grift where she impersonates a Spanish person'

Alec Baldwin's wife Hilaria Baldwin confessed on Sunday, December 27, that her original name is Hillary, and she was born in Boston, not Majorca. Her video statement came as a reply to social media trolls who questioned her ethnicity and called her accent "fake."

On December 22, 2020, one Internet user questioned the 36-year-old yoga instructor by sharing links to her past interviews and citing her "Fake Spanish accent." The netizen suspected Hilaria's Spanish roots, noting that she grew up in Massachusetts and went by the name Hillary when she was a student. The thread has since gone viral, driving much discussion as well as mockery. 

"You have to admire Hilaria Baldwin's commitment to her decade long grift where she impersonates a Spanish person," the tweet read, linking to a series of videos showing resurfaced TV news spots featuring Baldwin. 

The account further tweeted, "From a review of her podcast. This woman also claimed to have moved to the United States because she wanted to go to NYU." Further, the account revealed, "Hilary’s Google results say she was born to a Spanish mother and yet here we have her very American sounding mother talking about growing up in Massachusetts and Hilary’s grandfather was a college professor in the 1960s in Longmeadow:" and "And no she is not Spanish on her father’s side either here is the obituary of her grandfather - her paternal family has been in the United States since it was a British colony"

Talking about her native language, the account posted, "But her native language is most certainly English because here is her mother’s bio which notes that she graduated from BU medical school in 1986 and then had a 20 year career in MA Hilaria/Hilary was born in 1984 - mom would have been in medical school IN BOSTON"

On December 27, Baldwin replied to the tweets on Instagram saying, "A bit about me I’ve seen chatter online questioning my identity and culture. This is something I take very seriously,and for those who are asking— I’ll reiterate my story, as I’ve done many times before.  I was born in Boston and grew up spending time with my family between Massachusetts and Spain. My parents and sibling live in Spain and I chose to live here, in the USA. We celebrate both cultures in our home—Alec and I are raising our children bilingual, just as I was raised. This is very important to me. I understand that my story is a little different, but it is mine, and I’m very proud of it."

Born on January 6, 1984, as Hilaria Lynn Thomas, she married Alec in June 2012. For her University education, she chose art history and dance majors. A bad injury and some other health struggles, such as bulimia and anorexia, forced her to reevaluate her life and leave her dreams of being a professional dancer behind and become a yoga instructor. This led to her founding her own studio "Yoga Vida."

Previously, Baldwin said, that she was born in Spain. For example, in a resurfaced YouTube interview that aired in April 2020 for a series with authors and video personalities Cat & Nat, Baldwin said that she was born in Spain and moved to New York to attend college at New York University.

"I'm really lucky that I grew up speaking two languages, and I'm trying to raise my kids so they speak two languages, too," Baldwin continued in her Instagram video, referencing her five children with Alec. "I think people ask sometimes about how I speak," Baldwin continued in her video. "I am that person that if I've been speaking a lot of Spanish, I tend to mix them, or if I'm speaking or a lot of English, I mix that, it's one of those things I've always been a bit insecure about."

"A handful of years before I met Alec, I decided to consolidate the two because there were so many documents that said so many different things," she said. "I identify more with Hilaria because that's what my family calls me. One of the things I love about what my parents called me is that it means 'happy' in both languages. I think we can all be clear that it's the same name and just a few letters different, so I think we shouldn't be so upset about it," Baldwin added. "Whatever you guys want to call me, I will respond to both."