Years ago, Hilaria Baldwin ripped an unintended page directly out of Dorit Kemsley’s little black book of ever-changing accents. It found Hilaria receiving a proper roasting online. Then, many people began digging around into Hilaria’s upbringing, trying to discern what was up. This saw a firestorm of responses emerging from the Baldwin family, all attempting to stick up for Hilaria, by answering the viewers’ questions as best as they possibly could.
Well, now this family is about to become even more dissected. Because their newest reality television series, The Baldwins, is about to drop over on TLC. Only catching people’s hands, instead of a break, even their online announcement for this show garnered some serious heat. Let me break this mess all down for you now, so that by the time that their series finally airs, you’ll be as up-to-date as humanly possible.
And because we are here at Reality Tea welcome all kinds, you may read the following in any accent desired. Bonus points if read in a Muppet’s voice though, because none of this should be taken all that seriously.
First, their announcement that reignited accent-gate
Alec Baldwin just happily took to his Instagram page, where he and his wife Hilaria shared a bit more about their upcoming series. Roughly 0.2635 nanoseconds later, the viewers started flooding his comments with some jokes. At first, these comments included quips like “Are we getting Spanish or Boston Hillary?” But then, people also began to notice that within this little shared reel, Hilaria had zero accents at all.
One fan asked, “Where did her Spanish accent go?!” Likewise, someone else joked “Her accent disappeared!! It’s a Christmas miracle.” The entire comments section reads like this, so Hilaria’s accents are clearly still on everyone’s mind, even though several years have passed.
As Hilary Duff sings, “Let’s go back. Back to the beginning” now.
It all began on X
On December 21, 2020, X user @lenibriscoe went viral, after posting about her thoughts on Hilaria’s accent. “You have to admire Hilaria Baldwin’s commitment to her decade long grift where she impersonates a Spanish person,” she began. This user didn’t stop here though, because, underneath this post, she began adding in even more of her thoughts on this matter.
“Hilary’s Google results say she was born to a Spanish mother and yet here we have her very American sounding mother talking about growing up in Massachusetts and Hilary’s grandfather was a college professor in the 1960s in Longmeadow,” she revealed.
To backtrack even further, for years, Hilaria publicly presented herself as having a deeply-rooted Spanish heritage. Agreeing with her, in a 2014 profile of Hilaria, Elle described her as being “half Spanish.” And in 2012, a Vanity Fair article labeled her as being “bi-cultural.”
Then, in 2015, Hilaria spoke with a noticeable accent during a cooking demonstration on TODAY. Also in the video, she appeared to forget the English word for “cucumber.” In stark contrast, Hilaria has also spoken to other outlets over the years without any accent at all.
After the viewers began flooding this X thread, labeling Hilaria as either “tone deaf” or “insensitive,” Hilaria finally broke her silence on this matter.
Hilaria speaks
As Kermit the Frog demands, “always be yourself,” and as Hilaria states, that’s really all that she’s ever done. To note, he also says that “Someday we’ll find it, that rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers and me,” which I sing internally often, whenever life pisses me off. But I digress. As for Hilaria’s ability to forget common words, alongside her ever-changing accents, her reasoning on this matter is rather simple, as she explained to The New York Times.
“There is not something I’m doing wrong. Where is the smoking gun? My intentions are, I’m living my life, and my life is created by my parents, my different experiences, my languages, and my culture,” she stressed.
Hilaria then confirmed that she was born in Boston “and spent time in Boston and in Spain.” Next, Hilaria responded to her haters’ cultural appropriation remarks, asking “Who is to say what you’re allowed to absorb and not absorb growing up? This has been a part of my whole life, and I can’t make it go away just because some people don’t understand it.”
Now, let’s talk about her name. Hilaria was born Hillary Hayward-Thomas. However, she went by the name Hillary until at least 2009. Even still, her family calls her Hilaria.
“I think we can all be really clear that it’s the same name, just a few letters difference. I think we shouldn’t be so upset about it. Whatever you guys want to call me, I will respond to both,” she said.
As we will likely see on The Baldwins, Hilaria is choosing to raise her children in the same way. She wants them to have a dose of both of her cultures. And accents.
TELL US – WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS ACCENT-GATE SCANDAL? WILL YOU BE WATCHING THE BALDWINS?
