Hilaria Baldwin has spent a week defending herself after old videos surfaced of her speaking in a presumably Spanish accent. Though more recent videos on her social media sound like what you might expect from a person who was raised in Massachusetts, the clips from years back caused an internet uproar over something Baldwin believes to be inconsequential.
In a new interview with the New York Times, the wife of actor Alec Baldwin maintained she's done nothing wrong.
“It’s very surreal,” said Baldwin. “There is not something I’m doing wrong, and I think there is a difference between hiding and creating a boundary.”
Baldwin proffered explanations for the offending segments, saying she split her youth between Spain and the U.S. and noting that her family still lives abroad. A segment where she appeared to forget the word "cucumber" led people to accuse her of pretending English was her second language. However, Hilaria said it was just nerves from appearing on television. Ultimately, Baldwin said the confusion around her accent (or lack thereof) and upbringing was the result of boundaries she set between her life and her followers on social media.
“One of the most important places to start is this idea of boundaries,” she said. “The things I have shared about myself are very clear... I was born in Boston. I spent time in Boston and in Spain. My family now lives in Spain. I moved to New York when I was 19 years old and I have lived here ever since."
Baldwin said part of her secrecy around Spain was protection for her parents. As they had not asked to be in the public eye, Baldwin felt it wasn't proper to go into the granular details of her family's connection to Mallorca. In the Times interview, she notes that her parents have chosen a life in that country over their nation of origin.
"I guarantee you they are going to live there and they are going to die there," she said. "That’s their home and that’s because this is not something new, no one put a map up on the wall and threw a dart at it and said, ‘Oh, Spain sounds good.’”
