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!

as greenland herself reveals and quoted below - the motive is to get the thread deleted so is no doubt reporting on any post that greenland has determined (in their opinion) is defamatory. ie "Thread Police" in action.

"Of course, if you think someone genuinely has committed fraud, then I would feel free to say it. And on mumsnet its just that the thread would be taken down rather than someone sued for defamation or court orders to give up posters' identities (other than in that one past incident...)"

This is brilliantly mental.

@CeibaTree because it might have started as small lie that snowballed. Once she started accepting interviews with Spanish magazines, or Latin ones, she had to keep the story or people would have been very critical.

I think she also wanted to look more exotic, as it seems there is some confusion that Latin and Spanish are not the same thing, and Latin women are often stereotyped as sexy, feisty, etc..

I’m a lawyer, and I can categorically say that a statement which is true is not defamatory. Hilaria Baldwin is a fraud. She lied about her entire background and life and she has now been exposed.

The steady stream of white women defending her saying she’s harmless are clearly clueless in their own privilege and how her actions ARE harmful to immigrants and ethnic minorities.

Truth isn't defamatory.

Harassment by way of making unjustified threats of legal action is a real concept, however.

Greenland it’s a bit of a weirder hobby defending someone you don’t know for lying, telling us Wiki isn’t a reliable source as you can’t use it to a thesis, and chiding us for having any reaction to this weird newstory. At first I thought this Hilaria was weird but actually it is true - it’s HARMFUL to take on an identity that’s not your own, that you can throw away at your convenience, to further your career. It is total privilege to go “this is inconvenient for me now”, and straight face lie and blame the media for wrongly reporting stuff she had told them direct. She said she didn’t even know the word for cucumber, wtf?! It’s not cute, it’s not harmless. When people lack integrity and double down, it’s weird. We’re all “allowed” to think it’s weird. You’re on here dying on that hill, you do you, but stop policing others.

It seems to be a common theme on mumsnet where when someone criticises a celebrity, posters start using the threat of defamation to shut them up. It’s clear they don’t understand what defamation means, but their obsession to protect celebrities means they use any method they can to silence a conversation. It’s happening in this thread too and it’s disappointing.

[quote bambinaballerina]@CeibaTree because it might have started as small lie that snowballed. Once she started accepting interviews with Spanish magazines, or Latin ones, she had to keep the story or people would have been very critical.

I think she also wanted to look more exotic, as it seems there is some confusion that Latin and Spanish are not the same thing, and Latin women are often stereotyped as sexy, feisty, etc..[/quote]
Yeah I agree with that. She started calling herself 'Ilaria' when she was still a yoga instructor. The yoga business - for all its laid back image - is fiercely competitive and she may have felt that she could market herself better if she was just a teensy bit more 'exotic'.

As for the magazines, surely the Spanish ones at least must have known she was fibbing? One Spanish poster here said her accent is native like though others say that while her Spanish is very good, it's clearly not native speaker level. Wouldn't Spanish interviewers have asked her about what part of Spain she grew up in, where she went to school, etc? Or were they happy to go along with the lie?

@NotPrude

It seems to be a common theme on mumsnet where when someone criticises a celebrity, posters start using the threat of defamation to shut them up. It’s clear they don’t understand what defamation means, but their obsession to protect celebrities means they use any method they can to silence a conversation. It’s happening in this thread too and it’s disappointing.

Or try to shame posters into giving up by calling them 'bitchy', 'jealous', 'attacking another woman' and so on. I don't understand how people get so invested in celebrities who wouldn't slow down the limo to throw them a sandwich if they were starving.

I think the most interesting angle is that, as previously mentioned, "Hispanic" is a separate characteristic from being "White " in US - how far would someone go with such a lie.

Not necessarily Hilaria, but would someone presenting themselves as being born in Mallorca enter that information on official documents - ie. tick Hispanic (as that is how US would categorise - see comment about Nick Clegg's wife - Miriam and how she contacted them to correct their "mistake" ) it isn't really a mistake from a US point of view as they perceive being a native Spanish speaker as being Hispanic.

Greenland's assertions that this is a "bitchy" thread is way off the mark and shows a sad lack of breadth in ability to analyse the world or indeed words on a screen. Also, ironically is displaying everything she claims to wish to protect Hilaria from.

What is interesting about this story and why it is bigger than a sweet little omission from an innocent rich white woman to be more "exotic" is that this is really the issue of the day - identity politics; it clearly shows what a mess such "be kind" and don't enforce silly "definitions or rules" will lead to for all of us unless we acknowledge the contradictions.

Identity politics is making contradictory statements day in/day out. Where is the "truth" and what is the definition of "truth" is being questioned everyday - this is what this story highlights and why it is of interest.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this up thread. I found this news story fascinating and did a rather shallow dive on YouTube.
There exists a video of Hilarious Baldwin speaking Spanish to the Spanish news outlet, Hola!
There are Spaniards in the comments saying that her accent and language is indistinguishable from a native. This makes the story all the more peculiar to me.
It is, surely, uncommon for a Boston woman who holidayed in Mallorca even as frequently as she did to acquire such fluency?
Bizarre story.

@applesauce1

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this up thread. I found this news story fascinating and did a rather shallow dive on YouTube. There exists a video of Hilarious Baldwin speaking Spanish to the Spanish news outlet, Hola! There are Spaniards in the comments saying that her accent and language is indistinguishable from a native. This makes the story all the more peculiar to me. It is, surely, uncommon for a Boston woman who holidayed in Mallorca even as frequently as she did to acquire such fluency? Bizarre story.

You'd probably be better placed to learn English, German or Catalan on Mallorca!

There is speculation above that she may have had Spanish speaking nannies as a child, hence her near native fluency. Might not be 'cool' to admit that you learned the language from 'the help' your family was wealthy enough to employ, however.

@applesauce1 her interaction with Spain isn’t just limited to summer holidays. Apparently her grandfather developed a massive interest in Spanish after he went to Argentina and so taught all his kids Spanish. Its most likely that her parent(s) had the same interest and taught her Spanish from a young age, etc. It’s also not common for Americans to holiday so regularly in Spain, so that alone (together with their retirement to Spain) suggests that her parents were very much into Spanish language and culture throughout her entire life, which no doubt rubbed off on her.

re. speaking Spanish as well as a native:

Ernest Hemingway loved Spain - even experienced their Civil War first hand as war correspondent and wrote a book on the horror of that war: brother against brother.

He knew Spain inside and out and how the country ticks - not just as a lovely holiday destination. The country has a very complicated history - he didn't "become" Spanish and rewrite his own life - he created a new life where Spain was centred as his passion.

Being known to "love" everything Spanish (possibly, obsess) and speaking it fluently is something that someone who has the money and time is perfectly able to achieve.

Hilaria's dad seems to have a passion for Spain, perhaps he's a Hemingway fan and had his eyes opened to its history and literature that way.

However, you don't choose to select it as a new identity and re-write your own past... that is fantasy (or is it truth, if Hilaria says it's how she feels)......

People are mainly interested in Hilaria because she's married to Alec Baldwin, has had five beautiful babies with him in quick succession, her figure after each of her five babies has remained incredible, people follow her yoga teaching as a result and she's also clearly a highly educated, cultured, bilingual woman bringing her children up the same way.

All of that is true. For all the semantics about this vindictive episode being an informed discussion on identity politics, it's very clearly about jealousy of some or all of the above and posters trying to pretend otherwise are fooling no-one. Comments that this story is a gift to end 2020 with are just vile.

It's always seemed clear Hilaria is fragile. Again, what are people trying to achieve with this dissection of her character. The idea that 'it's for her own good' would be laughable if it wasn't so cruel. Those who know her say she's a kind woman and good Mum. This family should be left alone.

Maybe she is adopted and her birth mother is Spanish. It is possible. Why should she share that if true .
I think she has clearly lied in public. But that makes her a liar not a criminal.
I think it is funny and not worthy of the hatred.

She may have well spent more time with nannies than her parents during the week as a child. This isn’t a pop at people with nannies I had one, who was not British, and my son has some turns of phrase that show her influence. It’s very cute.

If her parents were keen for her to speak Spanish they may have encouraged those nannies to Spanish to their charges as she does to her children. It’s not difficult to understand how she could become fluent. But she just had to overdo the actual Spanish thing!

@Florencemattell

Maybe she is adopted and her birth mother is Spanish. It is possible. Why should she share that if true . I think she has clearly lied in public. But that makes her a liar not a criminal. I think it is funny and not worthy of the hatred.

What hatred? That’s an overstatement and so typical of social media these days. If you’re not a fan you must be a hater!

I’m curious to find out the truth because if her nannies spoke to her in Spanish and that’s how she learnt it, they would have had to be from Spain, because her accent doesn’t have even the tiniest trace of South American accent in it.

And it must be quite rare to have Spaniards as nannies in the US, especially since this would have been like 30 years ago.

Man, if Alec didn’t know the truth, and I’m assuming he wouldn’t have played along with it, they must have been having very awkward conversations these past few days.

@User647647

I’m curious to find out the truth because if her nannies spoke to her in Spanish and that’s how she learnt it, they would have had to be from Spain, because her accent doesn’t have even the tiniest trace of South American accent in it.

And it must be quite rare to have Spaniards as nannies in the US, especially since this would have been like 30 years ago.

Man, if Alec didn’t know the truth, and I’m assuming he wouldn’t have played along with it, they must have been having very awkward conversations these past few days.

Why? Perfectly possible for two wealthy Americans to hire a Spanish nanny if they wanted to.

Alec must have known - he’s met her family. Her mother isn’t remotely Spanish!

Is Hilaria the Spanish version of Hillary? It's an odd name - do we pronounce it as if rhymes with 'malaria' or like the last part of the word for the squits (which I can't spell, apols)?

I watched her make some packed lunches on a video link on the first couple of pages of this thread and it was clear that wasn't something she ever did. She just slapped a bit of hummus on a wrap, rolled it and bunged it into an empty lunch box.

She has the most amazing figure, I wondered if giving birth had been a job she had outsourced too?

@MrsBobDylan

Is Hilaria the Spanish version of Hillary? It's an odd name - do we pronounce it as if rhymes with 'malaria' or like the last part of the word for the squits (which I can't spell, apols)?

I think it's pronounced ill-ARR-ee-a.

For all the semantics about this vindictive episode being an informed discussion on identity politics, it's very clearly about jealousy of some or all of the above and posters trying to pretend otherwise are fooling no-one

If you bothered to RTFT properly, you would have seen many posts stating that people were following her before all this kicked off with certainly the most positive attitudes. I include myself in this group, as explained, I followed her for a period of time due to her baby loss posts and thought great, indeed, a beautiful, fit, wealthy woman with a following talks about something important. But the longer I followed her, I've realised she's doing it all for publicity, has no privacy limits in resoect of herself or her children and simply doesn't seem healthy and balanced as she likes to claim. Then the Spaingate commenced and frankly, yes, it has put me off completely that I used to spend my time following someone who is full of nonsense and a liar. Am I jealous of her? No, not one bit. I have no reasons to. I find a big disappointment though, she could have created a very decent platform and she's royally messed it up.