As the firestorm over her allegedly fake Spanish heritage rages on, Hilaria Baldwin, the wife of actor Alec Baldwin, is attempting to perform damage control, sitting down with the New York Times for an interview in which she explained that her Spanish accent comes and goes depending on her mood.
Hilaria Baldwin told the far-left-wing newspaper that she speaks English with varying degrees of a Spanish accent depending on how happy or upset she’s feeling. The podcaster and yoga instructor is bilingual, but she has acknowledged that she was born Hillary Hayward-Thomas in Boston to American parents.
She claims that she picked up her Spanish heritage by traveling frequently between the U.S. and Spain while growing up, though she eventually settled in the U.S. to attend New York University.
In the Times interview, Hilaria Baldwin said she hid her parent’s background as well-to-do Bostonians in an attempt to protect their privacy. She briefly addressed the confusion caused by her talent agency, CAA, which claimed in an online biography that she was born in Spain.
“It was very disappointing,” she said, claiming that she never reads stuff written about her. CAA has since deleted portions of the biography referencing her background.
Hilaria Baldwin also addressed accusations of cultural appropriation. She said that her family spoke Spanish at home in Boston and that she was so immersed in the culture that it simply became a part of her.
“Who is to say what you’re allowed to absorb and not absorb growing up?” she said.
The Times spoke with some of her old associates, including a former competitive dance partner. “The whole ‘Hilaria’ thing is hilarious to me,” Alexander Rechits told the newspaper. “It was always her desire to be considered Spanish.”
The dust-up of Hilaria Baldwin’s heritage appears to have started with an anonymous Twitter troll @lenibriscoe who questioned her accent. “It just seemed so strange to me that no one had ever come out and said it, especially for someone who gets so much media attention,” the anonymous individual told the newspaper.
The Twitter troll pointed out that Hilaria Baldwin forgot the English word “cucumber” during an appearance on NBC’s Today show.
Baldwin told the Times that she was nervous to be on live TV and just had a “brain fart.”
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