Hilaria Baldwin pretended to be Spanish wtf?!

[Ballstothis148]

This is the least important and most weird story of 2020.... this woman comes up on my Instagram a lot as a suggested page. Tbh I don’t find her interesting but know she’s Spanish and is into health, having babies with Alec Baldwin and that’s pretty much it. She speaks with a Spanish accent, on her IG page she calls her children “Baldwinitos” I do remember an article saying when she speaks Spanish to her kids people confuse her for a nanny so I thought an interesting take on a European mum in the States.

Except it’s all a lie. She’s not remotely Spanish. Her wealthy Boston parents (no Spanish ancestry) now have a holiday home there.

What is wrong with people?! I include me for being too interested :) why pretend to be Spanish? In one interview she even pretended she didn’t know the word for cucumber as her English isn’t that good

Oh and she’s not even called Hilaria, she’s called Hilary. This year I swear... what an odd story!! I did know a girl who went very French after a romance there one year... maybe it’s a thing!

I am also over invested in this. Blame Tier 4, the weird time after Christmas, I don’t know... but I am.

Solidarity fist bump.

It feels a bit of witch hunt to me.

What's the difference between identifying as a different nationally to the one you are born and identifying as a different sex to the one you were born?

Personally I think it's about the harm caused. A person posing as a surgeon puts patients at risk. A man posing as a woman, and appropriating women's rights, puts women at critical risk of harm. A man dressing as a woman, yet using the spaces designated for men, not women, is not a problem to me. A woman, speaking in a very good Spanish accent, and seemingly appropriating being Spanish (if it's actually true) is not a problem to me unless she is causing harm to other people. That's where I draw the line. Where one person's actions start to harm someone else, particularly when it starts to remove other peoples rights and legal protections.

You are full of justifications, from "Americans do the same" to "I said the usual way" and how "some may identify their ancestry nation". You are full of shit. Sorry.

What's with the 'sorry'? I'm not here to 'justify' anything to you.

Just because Hilaria was born in Boston, from American parents, doesn't obliviarate her growing formative years in Spain. Her perfect Castilan says she grew up in Spain. It's impossible for her to have the accent unless she grew up in Spain.

From Wiki:

*Baldwin was born Hillary Hayward-Thomas on January 6, 1984[1] in Boston, Massachusetts, to Dr. Kathryn Hayward and David Thomas Jr.[2][3] Her mother grew up in Massachusetts and spent her career practicing medicine there; she was an associate physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School prior to retiring from both positions in 2012.[4] Her father was an attorney with a BA in Spanish literature from Haverford College and a JD from Georgetown University; together the couple founded International Integrators, an integrative health firm, in 2013.[5][6]

Her paternal grandfather was David L. Thomas, Sr.,[7] an "American with roots in the country that pre-dated the American Revolution" and her maternal grandmother Mary Lou (Artman) Thomas was from Nebraska.[4][8] She has a brother named Jeremy Hayward-Thomas.[2]

Her parents moved to Mallorca, Spain in 2011.[2][9]

Baldwin attended private high school at the Cambridge School of Weston in Weston, Massachusetts.[2] She later attended college at New York University.[10] While attending NYU, she was on the ballroom dance team.[11]*

It only took me a few seconds to check this. You could have done the same. Hilary Thomas was born and raised in Boston. She only spent time in Spain on holidays, like millions of others. She is not Spanish by any definition. She is American.

Apparently her grandfather travelled to Argentina

I wonder when he'll have been friends with Ché Guevara. It's about as credible as anything else in the backstory.

@Kaliorphic I think that brazen lying, and the normalisation of lying, causes harm to society as a whole, and to the character of the individual telling the lie, however "nice" or "harmless" they might like to think they are. We should expect integrity from ourselves and from others.

Besides there's a huge difference between flat out lying, and stating that you "identify" as something. A more accurate comparison would be a biological male lying that he was biologically female and pretending to have been born with a vagina and a uterus.

No different to exposing someone who has lived as a woman and declared themselves as such as a fraud, just because you weren't privy to the transition and assumed them female (and so presumed born with a vagina and uterus - something not all biological woman have.) I think we as a society would not be allowed to call her a fraud and would be transphobic to do so.

Just because it didn't start publicly at the identifying stage it doesn't make it totally different.

Lot of the responses in this thread are about the hypocrisy rather than whether she's right or not.

She won't be impacted like Rachel Dolezal, who lost her job, because she's an "influencer", from an upper middle class background. Her husband is quite famous, so all this will soon be forgotten.

She didn't have to struggle to get a visa to stay in the US, although she mentioned being discriminated to for being Spanish Odd.

@Kaliorphic

Why are people so invested in defending a D-list celeb who got busted telling absolute whopping porkie pies

Because she's a human being, who also has feelings, and the trend of destroying people through trial by sm is revolting.

Surely it's a case of live by social media, die by social media (for the avoidance of doubt, I don't mean that literally)?

Nobody is being 'destroyed'. We're talking about someone who could have lived a private life but has chosen to make intimate details of her - and her children's life - public through social media. She has also chosen, for whatever reason, to create the impression that she is Spanish, when it is a fact that she is not. I'm not sure why you are so determined that she should be protected from the consequences of her own actions. She's still going to live a life of great ease and luxury. If you don't want people calling you out on SM, don't live your life through SM.

But no one is "assuming" anything.

Until yesterday her official bio stated she was born in Majora. That is nothing to do with "identifying" it's a flat out lie.

There are videos where she states she has an American dad and a Spanish mum when her mum is literally eligible to join DAR. Ditto.

She's on record as stating she first moved to America when she was 19. Ditto.

That is not the equivalent of a trans person who "identifies" as female, tries to pass themselves off as female (by wearing female clothes and hairstyles and makeup) and trying to avoid people speculating on their genitals. It's the equivalent of a trans person literally issuing a press release stating, "I was born with a vagina and uterus."

@TheVanguardSix

I am also over invested in this. Blame Tier 4, the weird time after Christmas, I don’t know... but I am.

Solidarity fist bump.

And I just saw @cathyandclare said the same thing

They can take away my freedom to leave my own house but they can never take away my freedom to read celebrity gossip!!

What I find so strange about this is that no one who knew her as a child/teen popped up to say “umm why you lying, hun?” Was she homeschooled her entire childhood? Did she not have any friends? Aunts? Grandparents? Or did they all just roll their eyes and agree to humour her?

@EagleFlight

It feels a bit of witch hunt to me.

Is it? She's lucky she's got away with it for so long. If you live a lie you are going to be caught out at some point. Especially if you are in the public eye and married to someone famous.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/baldwin-boston-spanish-claims-accusations-b1779385.html

Raised in Spain and Boston. Her parents and all her siblings live in Spain.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/baldwin-boston-spanish-claims-accusations-b1779385.html

So many people embelish the truth in Hollywood, I don't understand why this particular instance is getting so much attention.

For instance, Keanu Reeves' girlfriend has apparently faked loads of stuff about being a successful artist, claimed she has sold work for £x when she has y, exhibited where she hasn't and been educated where she hasn't. She has gained paid work directly as a result.

I'm fact, my ex's replacemebt girlfriend faked an interest in sports and running until she got him hooked, then dropped the pretence. Loads of people exaggerate or downright lie. This woman isn't claiming to be black to gain special treatment, she has literally lived in Spain and speaks Spanish and looks quite Spanish. Who knows exactly what her ancestry is? This is very different from fabricating an entire education and career, as Keanu Reeves' girlfriend has purportedly done.

IcedPurple you do know that Wikipedia isn't a reliable or definitive source, don't you?

@LittleTiger007

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/baldwin-boston-spanish-claims-accusations-b1779385.html

Raised in Spain and Boston. Her parents and all her siblings live in Spain.

She was not raised in Spain. She went there on family holidays but she was raised and educated in Boston.

I have also been to Spain on holidays, and my brother lives there. That does not, however, make me Spanish.

If Hilaria feels Spanish is everyone able to agree that Hilaria can now apply for prizes reserved for Spanish people or to be named in ‘Spaniards of 2020’ list?

She is the definition of a fraud.
Her being Spanish was her USP.
She got magazine covers in Spain on the strength of it.

There are videos of her saying she is not familiar with American pop culture because she only moved to the States age 19 to go to uni.
That 35 members of her Spanish family came to her wedding etc etc

There are loads of famous influencers- she lied to get herself noticed.

They can take away my freedom to leave my own house but they can never take away my freedom to read celebrity gossip!!

Hot damn! That's the Pandemic Spirit! Go forth and read that Daily Mail sidebar without shame! That's where I'm headed.

IcedPurple you do know that Wikipedia isn't a reliable or definitive source, don't you?

No source is 100% reliable, but I'm not sure why Wiki would lie about the education of an American yoga teacher who married a has-been actor.

Which part of the above quote is inaccurate?

@Yamayo

She is the definition of a fraud. Her being Spanish was her USP. She got magazine covers in Spain on the strength of it.

There are videos of her saying she is not familiar with American pop culture because she only moved to the States age 19 to go to uni.
That 35 members of her Spanish family came to her wedding etc etc

There are loads of famous influencers- she lied to get herself noticed.

But a man can say he IS a woman (not feels like one or would like to be one) and we all not and smile at her stunning bravery.

@LittleTiger007 That’s not exactly reliable. She says she was raised in Spain. She wasn’t. She went on holiday in Spain.

I went to Turkey in my summer holidays when I was kid. I had some family who lived there (also not Turkish), and we would sometimes spend the entire 6 week holiday there. That doesn’t mean I can claim I’m Turkish!

@IcedPurple

IcedPurple you do know that Wikipedia isn't a reliable or definitive source, don't you?

No source is 100% reliable, but I'm not sure why Wiki would lie about the education of an American yoga teacher who married a has-been actor.

Which part of the above quote is inaccurate?

The point is that it is someone's idea of what they think is correct. It isn't peer reviewed, it diesnt go through the normal checks for accuracy that formal authors do. Wiki is not somewhere I would expect to fund an exhaustive, detailed, accurate list of all schools attended by an individual. Taking a random comparison, on Wiki, the forner PM Gordon Brown, is not listed as having taken 10 years to complete a PhD on the history of the Labour Party in Scotland, nor is the fact that he was an ad hoc, part time tutor in social policy at the former Paisley Tech for a few months made entirely clear either.

Wiki often glosses over info or gives an inaccurate impression by omitting facts. There is a reason it cannot be cited as a source by students at University.

(I thought everyone knew this).

I have to admit I am fascinated by the pragmatics of this. When did she decide to “become” Spanish? Was it when she met Alec Baldwin (maybe to seem more interesting?) or before? And how did it work with friends etc?

“Hi Susie. Great news! I’ve met a fab new bloke! The only snag is... he sort of thinks I’m Spanish.” “Spanish?!?” “Yes - so could you pretend I am?” “Um... Ok” “Great - I’ll see you on Friday for dinner. I’m doing paella! Yummy!” “Ok -Hilary - see you then” “Ah - just one my thing....”

It’s like an episode of Miranda or The IT Crowd!