Hilaria Baldwin returned to Instagram after a month of silence after people accused her of fraudulently claiming to be from Spain and speaking with a Spanish accent.

On Friday, the yoga and wellness entrepreneur shared an Instagram photo of herself and her five children sprawled on the floor with husband Alec Baldwin. In the period since the claims of heritage appropriation were leveled against her, she’d been “listening, reflecting, and asking myself how I can learn and grow,” she revealed in the caption.

 

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Though she reiterated she was raised with both American and Spanish cultures and feels “a true sense of belonging to both,” she added that “the way I’ve spoken about myself and my deep connection to two cultures could have been better explained.”

Hilaria, 47, who had previously spoken with a Spanish accent, faced a barrage of criticism after a social media user exposed her false origin claims in December.

After years of saying Majorca was her birthplace and that she first came in the United States at the age of 19, the 37-year-old was forced to admit she was born in Boston and went by the name Hillary.

“I should have been more clear and I’m sorry,” she continued. “I’m proud of the way I was raised, and we’re raising our children to share the same love and respect for both. Being vulnerable and pushing ourselves to learn and grow is what we’ve built our community on, and I hope to get back to the supportive and kind environment we’ve built together.”

Baldwin’s former interviews and TV appearances were compiled in a widely shared Twitter thread in December 2020 by user @lenibriscoe, who stated that the fitness instructor appeared to falsify her accent and identify as being born in Spain on many occasions.

Hilaria was raised in Weston, Massachusetts, by American parents with no trace of a foreign accent, according to many former classmates.

One person stated: “I went to high school with her. Genuinely lovely person, I recall, but fully a white girl from Cambridge.”

Another person added: “I went to high school with her. She was perfectly nice and serious about ballroom dancing. Her name was indeed Hillary Hayward-Thomas and she did not have her current accent.”

The negative comments on social media didn’t stop there. Baldwin “always” had a “desire to be considered Spanish,” according to a former dancing partner, who spoke to The New York Times.

Baldwin defended her portrayal of her ethnicity in an Instagram video posted days after the issue emerged, in which she admitted being from Boston but said she “grew up spending time with my family between Massachusetts and Spain.”

“We celebrate both cultures in our home ― Alec and I are raising our children bilingual, just as I was raised,” she said in the video. “This is very important to me. I understand that my story is a little different, but it is mine, and I’m very proud of it.”

She enhanced her explanation with a video.

“I am that person that if I’ve been speaking a lot of Spanish, I tend to mix them, and if I’m speaking a lot of English then I mix that,” she explained, adding that she also mixes the languages when she’s frightened or agitated.