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“Hilaria Baldwin Breaks Her Silence: Is the World Really Being ‘Mean,’ or Is There More to the Accent Controversy?”

Added on March 18, 2025 inCelebrity News Cards

On this week’s episode of “The Baldwins,” Hilaria Baldwin, the former yoga instructor with a flair for dramatic storytelling, opened up about her life in the swirling vortex of fame and controversy. To say she tried to “distance” herself from the drama might be an understatement. I mean, can you blame her? Wearing a cape and flying away seems like a valid option when the world is critiquing your accent! But that’s not all; as a mom of seven, she’s got her hands full as it is. In a candid moment, she dove deep into the art of code-switching—essentially, that magical ability we all have to adapt our behavior and speech based on our audience—much like changing your outfit for a different occasion. Just imagine having to chameleon your way through life with cameras always watching; it takes a skill set all its own!

So as she reflects on growing up in a melting pot of cultures and the fallout from her viral accent controversy, we can’t help but wonder: Is “normal” just a setting on a washing machine? Tune in as Hilaria shares her insights on language, identity, and navigating the constant spotlight. No wonder “The Baldwins” continues to spark conversations, stir emotions, and draw in viewers week after week. I mean, who wouldn’t want to witness a celebrity trying to find their footing amidst life’s chaos?

To catch all the revelatory moments and juicy details, check out the full scoop here!

On Sunday’s episode of their TLC reality series “The Baldwins,” the former yoga instructor described how she tried to “distance” herself from the drama.

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Hilaria Baldwin Says She Learned To Be ‘Very Good’ At Code-Switching

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On the March 16 episode of “The Baldwins,” the 41-year-old mom of seven reflected on the controversy over her allegedly fake Spanish accent, which went viral in 2020.

“Growing up in a way where you have multiple cultural influences on you means that you’re never going to be able to fit in. You can try,” she explained on the show. “You can chameleon. You know, people who code-switch we’re very good at chameleoning… and you don’t even think you’re not even thinking about it. It’s just normal. It’s just natural.”

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Hilaria Describes Her Communication Style With A Friend of Her Daughter

Alec and Hilaria Baldwin on red carpet
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Her accent was brought up during a conversation with the 15-year-old sister of her daughter Carmen’s friend. During their conversation, she compared “code-switching” to talking to an elderly person.

“They say that it’s like communication, if you ever talk to a really old person who cannot hear, and I’m gonna emphasize, I’m gonna speak slower,” Hilaria explained. “And you’re not even really thinking about it. You just start to do it.”

“You know what it’s called? Code-switching… I had to learn about it because the whole world was mean to me, and so I had to learn it,” she continued. “It’s code-switching.”

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Hilaria Baldwin Says She Never Got Used To The Spotlight

Hilaria Baldwin at the American Museum of Natural History 2019 Museum Gala
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In a confessional, she explained that she never quite got used to being in the spotlight. “Being in, the spotlight, as people like to call it. People say, ‘Oh, don’t you get used to it?’ No, you don’t get used to it,” she explained. “You never get used to people being mean.”

“But you take a deep breath, and I think you learn to distance yourself from it, and so, you know, you just try turning down the volume in my head a bit… and I’m not gonna take it personally,” she added.

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Hillary Lynn Hayward-Thomas Was Born In Boston

Hilaria Baldwin seen walking out of her apartment to get coffee and take her kids to school
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There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Hilaria’s origins. She was born Hillary Lynn Hayward-Thomas in Boston, Massachusetts, and is of English, French-Canadian, German, Irish, and Slovak descent.

Although she said she was raised in a Spanish-speaking household and traveled to Spain each year, her mother was an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and her father was an attorney with a law degree from Georgetown University.

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Hilaria Claims Her Parents Now Live In Spain

Hilaria Baldwin at the Ripple of Hope Gala 2022
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Alongside the 2020 video, Hilaria wrote, “I’ve seen chatter online questioning my identity and culture. This is something I take very seriously, and for those who are asking — I’ll reiterate my story, as I’ve done many times before.”

“I was born in Boston and grew up spending time with my family between Massachusetts and Spain,” she continued. “My parents and sibling live in Spain and I chose to live here, in the U.S.A.” Hilaria has one brother named Jeremy Hayward-Thomas.

Hilaria Baldwin Addressed The Controversy During The Show’s Premiere

Hilaria Baldwin at the American Museum of Natural History Benefit Gala
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Despite taking place years ago, their reality series has devoted a significant amount of time to addressing the controversy surrounding her allegedly fake accent.

“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 in a confessional during the show’s premiere episode last month. “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.”

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“But it was my family, my friends, my community who speak multiple languages, who have belonged in multiple places and realize 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,” she continued, noting that it is “normal” and “called being human.”

“The Baldwins” airs Sundays at 10 PM ET on TLC.

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