Hilaria Baldwin has apologized for faking her Spanish heritage, saying in an Instagram post on Friday that she ‘should have been more clear’.
In a caption alongside a photo of her with her husband Alec and their five children, she said: ‘I’ve spent the last month listening, reflecting, and asking myself how I can learn and grow.
‘My parents raised my brother and me with two cultures, American and Spanish, and I feel a true sense of belonging to both.
In a caption alongside a photo of her with her husband Alec and their five children, she said: ‘I’ve spent the last month listening, reflecting, and asking myself how I can learn and grow
Baldwin’s apology on Instagram on Friday afternoon
‘The way I’ve spoken about myself and my deep connection to two cultures could have been better explained – I should have been more clear and I’m sorry.
‘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,’ she said.
At the end of December, it emerged that Hilaria – who in the past claimed to have grown up in Majorca and spoke with a Spanish accent – actually spent her childhood in Beacon Hill, Boston, and went by Hillary.
It started with a single tweet which read: ‘You have to admire Hilaria Baldwin’s commitment to her decade long grift where she impersonates a Spanish person’.
The woman then continued to post videos and proof of how Hilaria’s accent has changed over the years.
She later told The New York Times that it was an ‘open secret’ in Manhattan that Hilaria had faked it, and that she and her friends, ‘bored’ from the pandemic, decided finally to expose the secret.
Baldwin’s family ‘friends’ in Majorca said they’d never met her, and that her parents spoke with American accents.
Hilaria hit back over the scandal in a cringe-worthy New York Times interview in December where she pinned the blame for the deception on the media for ‘misrepresenting me’ which had caused people to be ‘confused’ about her heritage.
She put forgetting the word cucumber down to a ‘brain fart’ because she was nervous about being on live TV.
And she also blamed the bio on her agency’s website – which said she was Spanish – on her reps, claiming they must have taken ‘unverified information from the internet to write a sloppy bio.’
‘The things I have shared about myself are very clear,’ she said. ‘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.
‘For me, I feel like I have spent 10 years sharing that story over and over again. And now it seems like it’s not enough.’
She added that Spain ‘was part of my father’s childhood,’ and that her family had ‘created these deep, deep, deep bonds’ with the country.
‘Who is to say what you’re allowed to absorb and not absorb growing up?’ she said.
Hilaria Baldwin (pictured with husband Alec) has claimed she is guilty of no wrongdoing after being accused of pulling off a ‘decade-long grift’ to pass herself off as a Spanish perso
The fall-out resulted in her losing major endorsement deals.
Her apology – six weeks on from when the scandal first broke – comes just days after Hollywood actor Salma Hayek also waded into the drama to say she had also been ‘fooled’ by Baldwin’s claims but defended her saying ‘we all lie a little bit.’
Hayek, who is good friends with Hilaria’s husband Alec and does have Spanish roots, told SiriusXM’s ‘Andy Cohen Live’ she felt ‘honored’ that the fitness instructor wanted to emulate someone of her background.
‘We all lie a little bit. She makes my friend happy. She fooled me because she’s such a good mother. She has five [kids] and you know, I don’t care,’ she said.
‘It makes me feel proud that people are inspired. I think she’s smart to want to be Spanish. We’re cool, you know?’
Hayek admitted she found the situation ‘bizarre’ but insisted Baldwin is ‘not a bad person’.
In her 2009 tax return, Hilaria first wrote her name as Hilaria, then as Hillary
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