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Alec Baldwin’s wife Hilaria says ‘fake accent’ controversy put her ‘in dark places’

Feb 20, 2025

Hilaria Baldwin is opening up about her infamous accent

During the premiere of The Baldwins, a reality television show about her family, the star broke her silence on the 2020 controversy surrounding her accent. 

At the time, Baldwin was under fire for suspicions over whether her Spanish accent was authentic.

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Hilaria Baldwin and Alec Baldwin

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“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,” she said on the show, 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.

“But it was my family, my friends, my community who speak multiple languages, who have belonged in multiple places and realise 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.”

Hilaria Baldwin and Alec Baldwin with their seven kids.

“That’s normal,” she added. “That’s called being human.”

Baldwin was raised in a Spanish-speaking household and travelled to Spain annually while growing up.

The author shares seven children with her husband, Alex Baldwin, and hopes they are as in touch with their Spanish heritage as she was. 

The pair share Ilaria Catalina Irena, two, María Lucía Victoria, three, Eduardo Pao Lucas, four, Romeo Alejandro David, six, Leonardo Ángel Charles, eight, Rafael Thomas, nine, and Carmen Gabriela, 11.

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Hilaria Baldwin's heritage controversy

“I’m raising my kids to be bilingual; I was raised bilingual,” she explained.

“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.”

It isn’t the first time Baldwin has addressed accusations that she’s been faking her Spanish accent and cultural roots.

Four years ago, in a since-deleted Instagram video, she said: “My family is white. Ethnically, I’m a mix of many, many, many things.

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 07: Hilaria Baldwin attends Glamour Women of the Year 2023 at Jazz at Lincoln Center on November 07, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Glamour)

“Culturally, I grew up with two cultures, so it’s really as simple as that,” Baldwin continued, addressing rumours she fabricated her Spanish roots when she was born in Boston and her birth name is Hilary.

“It’s one of those things that I’ve been a little insecure about over different times, and when I try to work, I try to annunciate a little bit more, but if I get nervous or upset or something, then I start to mix the two.”

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