Hilaria Baldwin is facing backlash on social media following allegations that she has for years mispresented her heritage by “faking” Spanish roots.
The backlash against Hilaria Baldwin, 36, started on social media after Twitter user @lenibriscoe accused her of impersonating “a Spanish person” and faking a Spanish accent.
“You have to admire Hilaria Baldwin’s commitment to her decade long grift where she impersonates a Spanish person,” the Twitter user alleged in a December 21 tweet (see below).
The user then uploaded a video showing Hilaria speaking with a Spanish accent during a TV interview (see below), despite being born in Boston, Massachusetts.
“Fake Spanish accent debut – this woman grew up in Massachusetts,” the Twitter user wrote.
Twitter user @lenibriscoe also posted a video (see below) showing Hilaria during an appearance on the Today show (see video below).
People alleged that the video shows Hilaria pretending to have forgotten the English word for cucumber although she was born and raised in the U.S.
Fake Spanish accent debut – this woman grew up in Massachusetts pic.twitter.com/TZO47iHgO7
— elena ilana alana alina elana (not) (@lenibriscoe) December 21, 2020
I don’t understand Hilaria Baldwin’s grift here. Faking an accent & ethnicity? Pretending not to know how to say “cucumber” —she says ¿Cómo se dice? She just admitted she’s Caucasian. (White non-Hispanic). This is something else. Whew. pic.twitter.com/amruMSOoBB
— Maya Contreras (@mayatcontreras) December 27, 2020
Hilaria Baldwin responded to the backlash
Hilaria Baldwin responded to the Twitter backlash in a video she uploaded to her Instagram on Sunday.
She explained that she felt compelled to respond to chatter on social media questioning her heritage. She denied the allegations that she misrepresented her heritage by ‘”faking” Spanish roots.
Hilaria claimed she has shared the truth about her heritage in the past but it appeared that many misunderstood her message. She said she was forced to upload the video to clarify the issue again.
“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.”
According to Hilaria, she spent time in the U.S. as well as Spain while growing up and acquired both American and Spanish accents but she sometimes got the two accents mixed up while speaking.
She also explained that while growing up, she used the name Hillary in the U.S. but used Hilaria when she was in Spain.
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Hilaria’s husband, Alec Baldwin, lashed out at Twitter users
Hilaria’s husband, Alec Baldwin, took to Instagram on Sunday to lash out at his wife’s detractors, saying that Twitter is “a lot of s***.”
“You have to kind of hack your way through the debris of Twitter,” he said. “Twitter is just a vast orchard of crap.”
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Hilaria previously claimed she was born in Mallorca
Despite admitting in the Instagram video that she was born in Boston, Hilaria reportedly claimed in a now-deleted online bio page on the website of her management agency (CAA Speakers) that she was born on the Spanish island of Mallorca (Majorca), but raised in Boston.
She also claimed in a recent interview that she moved to the U.S. when she was 19 to attend New York University (NYU), although she was born Hillary Hayward-Thomas in Boston.
She attended NYU after graduating from The Cambridge School of Weston in Weston, Massachusetts.
Her parents, Dr. Kathryn Hayward and David Thomas were also Massachusetts natives and residents who retired to Mallorca in 2011 when Hilaria was 27.