Why So Many People Can't Stand Alec Baldwin's Wife Hilaria
Hilaria Baldwin often gets a hard time on social media, to the point where her stepdaughter Ireland Baldwin has had to jump to her defense in the past. Even so, many of Hilaria's critics have pointed to the yoga instructor's past failures to correct inaccuracies as a reason why they dislike her — or at least the way she's presented herself in the past.
Pop culture aficionados will likely remember that back in 2020, Hilaria found herself at the center of a media storm. In a nutshell, it was revealed that Hilaria — born Hillary Hayward-Thomas — was not Spanish. This, despite years of coverage that suggested otherwise. Though the head-turning details of Hilaria's strange scandal are extensive, one thing many took issue with was the author not correcting Latina magazine when they named her on their list of best-dressed Latina celebrities (twice), and the fact that she was a cover star for Hola! magazine. Even Bethenny Frankel slammed Hilaria for using semantics to avoid clarifying that she wasn't from Spain. "You're not being accountable. You're not saying, 'I was born and bred in Spain,' but you're kind of ... the language she chose in interviews, about, 'My family is from Spain,'" she mused on "Just B with Bethenny Frankel."
It is worth noting that Hilaria did ultimately address the situation in an Instagram video and clarified that she'd spent a lot of time in Spain as a kid, even if she wasn't Spanish herself. As for the name, she reasoned that Hilaria was just the Spanish version of her actual name. And, regarding a memorable occasion when she'd forgotten the English word for cucumber in a cooking segment, she chalked that up to being bilingual and speaking more Spanish at the time. Even so, not everyone has been convinced, and some have continued to call her out.
Hilaria's continued use of her accent has drawn further criticism
Even in the wake of all the drama, Hilaria Baldwin has continued to speak with a Spanish accent in the years since. And, unsurprisingly, she's continued to get a lot of flak because of it. In 2023, Megyn Kelly poked fun at her on her podcast, "The Megyn Kelly Show," after a video of Hilaria imploring paparazzi to stop following her, Alec Baldwin, and their kids went viral — and once again she had a noticeable accent. Kelly's take was that perhaps Mrs. Baldwin had a "nervous tick."
Interestingly, that's exactly how Hilaria has explained the situation. In her Instagram video addressing her accent, she said, "If I get nervous or upset or something, then I start to mix the two" (via News911). Hilaria also revealed that her accent changing depending on which language she'd been speaking more had made her feel insecure at times. That said, she also mused that she was hoping to stop letting it get to her going forward.
Perhaps Hilaria has undergone a transformation, going from embarrassed to unconcerned, because like we said, she's been caught on video speaking with an accent on more than one occasion since the scandal erupted. In addition to her impassioned plea to the paps to leave her kids alone, Hilaria featured in yet another cooking video where she forgot the English word for onion. Surprising absolutely no one, Hilaria's detractors have had a field day with it. Somehow, we doubt her fiercest critics are going to change their stance any time soon.