Hilaria Baldwin Reflected On The Viral Controversy Over Her “Fake” Spanish Accent

You know Hilaria Baldwin — if not for being a fitness guru and the wife of Alec Baldwin, then probably for all the speculation over her accent.

For context, Hilaria has long spoken with a Spanish accent and, before 2020, seemed to publicly indicate that she was born in Spain — meaning people were obviously happy to accept she was Spanish. However, that all changed a few years ago when social media users began to speculate that she had been impersonating “a Spanish person” for decades.

After a December 2020 clip from Today in which she was accused of “pretending” to forget the English word for “cucumber,” Hilaria addressed speculation that she was faking her Spanish accent and clarified that she was, in fact, born and raised in Boston — but that she “grew up spending time with [her] family between Massachusetts and Spain” and therefore has a deep appreciation for both cultures.

As you may remember, Hilaria’s explanation kind of left people with more questions than answers. So, a few months later, she returned with a second statement in which she admitted that she “should have been more clear” about being raised between “two cultures.”

In the years since, most people have come to accept Hilaria’s blend of cultures — although that still hasn’t stopped some people from questioning the authenticity of her Spanish identity. And now, Hilaria has addressed the whole thing once again in the premiere episode of her and Alec’s new TLC reality show, The Baldwins, which comes out this week.

Talking about her Spanish controversy in a confessional, Hilaria spoke about her accent and said that she was raised “bilingual,” with English presumably being her first language. “I love English, I also love Spanish,” she said. “And when I mix the two it doesn’t make me inauthentic, and when I mix the two, that makes me normal. 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.”

Notably, Hilaria also said she’s incorporating Spanish culture into the lives of her and Alec’s seven young children and that she’s raising them bilingual, too. “My family — all my nuclear family — now lives over in Spain,” she said. “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.”