Boston native and internationally renowned Fake Spaniard Hillary Thomas spent the holidays in the Hamptons, where she and Alec Baldwin have a home. According to People, on New Year’s, Hillary “seemed a bit upset, Alec has been around to comfort her. He has been supportive and has tried to cheer her up.” In case you need another reminder, the expensive publicists and crisis managers hired by Alec think this is the way to go: make everything sound like Poor Bullied Hilaria. Even People couldn’t keep it up though:
A friend close to Hilaria tells PEOPLE that the recent revelation is shocking. “She loves speaking about her Spanish heritage and seemed to want people to believe that she is Spanish,” says the source. “She wants the kids to know that they are half-Spanish. It’s been important to her that the kids speak Spanish. And they all have Spanish names.”
We’ve talked about this before, but you can love another culture and be obsessed with another culture and incorporate aspects of that culture into your life and all of that is fine and no one blinks an eye. Gwyneth Paltrow loves Spain as well. She studied abroad in Spain, has visited the country many times and she cooks a lot of Spanish cuisine. She’s never claimed to be Spanish. Serena Williams loves France, speaks French, owns a Paris apartment and teaches French to her daughter. Serena has never claimed to be French. What is happening with Hillary is not simply love for another culture. It’s a really insidious and offensive appropriation. And now that appropriation is finally affecting her wallet:
The dominoes continue to fall for Hilaria Baldwin. The 37-year-old has started to lose brand partnerships in the wake of her Spanish heritage scandal — with Page Six exclusively confirming that Cuties Baby Care will no longer be working with the mom of five.
“In response to the inquires we have received, we would like to inform all of our loyal Cuties followers that Hilaria’s partnership with Cuties Baby Care ended at the end of 2020,” the company said in a statement. “We thank Hilaria for the support she provided in 2020 and wish her, and her family, continued health and happiness in the New Year.”
Baldwin promoted Cuties Baby Care’s products on her Instagram in various posts featuring her children and also participated in giveaways for the brand, which sells wipes and diapers for sensitive skin.
The former yoga instructor also has deals with Spindrift, Mattel, Fisher-Price and Bissell, but the companies didn’t return Page Six’s numerous requests for comment.
The Motherhood Industrial Complex is so profitable for problematic a–holes like Hillary, my God. I hope she loses all of her sponsorships – someone please tweet at Mattel, Fisher-Price and Bissell.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
I will never get sick of this story, mostly because as an actual bilingual person with actual familial connections to another country (plus I have the passport to prove it), I am really fascinated by a person who invented a whole fake persona and carried on with the act for years. I wonder what psychiatrists would diagnose her with, it’s like the most compelling case study. I bet you psychology college professors will use her as an example in their courses.
It’s hilarious, right? And because she chose to pretend she’s *Spanish,* it’s not like it has that queasy element of minority identity theft. She literally just wanted to exoticize her life in the whitest way possible because she happened to be bilingual. I don’t know how she thought this wouldn’t come out eventually in the era of the Internet and easy information gathering. I do want to know how many people in her family have been watching this go down for years and kept quiet about it while secretly going WTF.
It’s pretty generous to call her bilingual, I doubt she really is. From what I’ve read she mostly sticks to easy present tense sentences.
Reminds me of the renowned polyglot Melania who can say “hi” in five languages.
Yes, Veronica – your last sentence! Did she and her husband visit her parents ar all? If so, did she keep the accent going with them? Dis Alec fall for it, or has he been part of the con job all along? Does he tell her now, “Ok, Hilary, you an drop it now.” I’m waiting to see if any offers are made to her family, friends, ex friends, neighbours et al, to tell all.
I mean she passed herself off as Latina at times to Latina magazine so it was in fact theft of a minority identity also…. it’s twisted.
One of the weird aspects to me, is in her Spanish cosplay, she doesn’t come across as knowing much about Spain. Not that I’ve been following her closely on social media admittedly! But I’m sure lots of people here also love Spain and spend time there and know plenty about it – it’s a beautiful country and I totally get loving Spain and Spanish culture… Spain is so regional and people have a strong regional identity, including local language/dialect – which she doesn’t seem to have presented, and she also seems to have presented herself as Latinx where I don’t think Spanish people would usually self identify this way (although there are Latinx people in Spain)… people will know more about it than me, but she’s not very authentic is she?
Elizabeth – Did she say Latino or Hispanic? Because the later includes people from Spain, so not as awful, but if she was featured in Latin American media that suggested she was South American by heritage, that’s pretty messed up.
Either way – what an idiot lol.
I wouldn’t diagnose her with anything just based on the persona issue. Many people pretend to be people they are not and it’s not psychiatric in nature.
Yeah, I’m trying to be aware of, and warn myself away from, thinking thoughts like “what is absolutely wrong with this person,” because no matter how you try to pathologize it, it’s still just the behavior of a privileged white person being a culture vulture.
@ paranormalgirl : I’m amazed that anyone would even try something like this in the Internet era. It is so EASY to check someone’s background and prove if they are lying about it. Hell, I found out once about a person just by checking Facebook and doing a bit of FB research. One account led to another and then another and it all became very clear. I’m not amazed that she got caught; I’m only amazed she didn’t get caught sooner.
Why not just say, “I love Spanish Culture” and “I honor that by raising my children bilingual” we have Francophiles, Anglophiles, there is nothing wrong with loving other cultures but pretending never ends well! When I was 10 I told a big lie to all my new neighbors that I was adopted from gypsies (no offense to the Romani,I thought that was cool) When a neighbor boy asked my sister about it my life went to hell and I was the liar new girl in town.
I wonder if the whole situation speaks to the power of snow balling. Like Hilaria lied or twice and then just continued lying to save face? And maybe her parents went along with it because that’s less awkward than calling her out? And presumably Baldwin didn’t want to humiliate her by publicly exposing her once/if he noticed the truth.
Like this is an extreme case. And the cultural appropriation is despicable. I’ve just seen people maintain ridiculous charades instead of telling the truth.
Also hi @paranormalgirl ITA with you.
I would diagnose her as being one of the thirstiest b*tches on the planet. I have an unreasonable dislike of “influencers” and everything they stand for. They are generally preening, celebrity wannabes (coughJessicaMulroneycough) who have managed to latch onto a famous spouse in order to boost their image and reach.
@paranormalgirl – spot on.
Have thought this for a very long time. Never understood how influencers became a thing but I thought that’s because I’m gen X and getting older and crankier.
Why are they even called ‘influencers’? They are more like commercialised humans, walking billboards if you will
Obviously you can’t diagnose her with anything specific, buuuuut…if you put a few things together, she definitely seems to have more narcissistic characteristics than the average person. (Not saying she has a personality disoder, just that she appears to have characteristics).
I think the narcissistic characteristics are –
– being extremely focused on physical appearance and external roles (eg her role as a mother of five children, a Spanish person)
– constructing a new identity for herself so others would see her in a way she felt was desirable (pretending to be Spanish)
-being very sensitive to criticism and playing the victim when critisized (her response to being exposed as not Spanish!)
-having difficulty apologizing, accepting reality (again, her response over the last week)
-having a tonne of kids as a way of feeding some inner need??? (Not sure about this one, but I’ve always side-eyed the number of kids in quick succession.)
I was waiting to see if she’d start losing sponsorships. On one of his podcasts a few months ago, Alec said she’d earnt more money than him that month because of her sponsorships. I thought she’d lose some, because if you’re not seen as authentic on social media, I don’t think brands want much to do with you.
Hillary suffers from AFFLUENZA, there’s no vaccine& it’s a bit contagious. The Boston born & bred woman had it all: fitness, a vacay tan, education & wealth. She found an Hispanic ESL personality,& in her entitlement, paraded a faked personae to monetize, fetishize & create a pubic platform
And even after reading loads about it, I didn’t realise JUST HOW MANY TIMES she straight up lied and fully said she was spanish and her whole family was spanish till watching this compilation of both her and Alec pulling this con. Hope the link is allowed because holy s*it so much worse than I thought
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vHYV4eCfwhE
OMG!!!!! Just watched. Like wtf? Why? How? I struggle with a – like one, one – white lie I might tell my mother as an excuse for not going over. How does one lie on such scale AND in the internet age? There is something wrong with both of them.
I tried to post this link on another thread but it must have gone into the CB spam. It is very well put together and they are both as bad as each other. The video of Hilary (wearing a bright green top) when she was a guest on GMA shortly after she got married, is especially cringe worthy listening to her terrible fake accent.
Not only are their lies disgusting, the way people react to her in her hispanic persona seems pretty stereotyped and obnoxious. This is maybe what Alec Baldwin though a hispanic wife would be???
I will never get sick of people only referring to her as Hillary Thomas since that is her real name. Also, she needs the help y’all – couldn’t even get it right on her tax returns. Let’s unite to help Hillary remember her own effing name in 2021.
I find this story fascinating.
I am French, I have lived in Northern Ireland and fell in love with the place. I used to be bilingual (my English is a bit rusty now). My son also speaks English fluently, and has a first name that works fine in both French and English because we were planning to move to Northern Ireland permanently after his birth (didn’t happen).
I would never, ever, ever claim to be Irish and speak with a fake Irish accent. That would be ridiculous. And I have probably spent more time in NI than Hilaria has ever spent in Spain.
Good. In the grand scheme of things this is offensive but not criminal. Still, she’s a lying liar who lies.
Nah, let’s see what these other companies do on their own. I get frustrated with how quickly people bombard companies to do the right thing. Let’s see if they can figure it out for themselves. If they can’t, we’ll… the Mommy Industrial Complex is vast. So, bye bye Barbie.
She’s still claiming heritage? To be 100% and her children are half?
Someone get this woman in therapy and some basic health and science classes ASAP!
Those poor kids, who’s going to tell them they’re not half Spanish because mommy is a pathological liar?
Lol, good! How much money is this family going through that Hillary needs to be a Bissel vacuum spokesperson? We know you didn’t marry a Baldwin so you could clean your own house! It’s just funny that this supposedly A list celeb couple needs the same sponsorships that thirsty wannabe mommy influencers with no famous husband have.
To be fair they probably have about 10 nannies and 3 housekeepers, so there is that. To most rich people it’s never enough. The more you have the more want. This is why people like Jeff Bezos exist.
Her poor family. I’m not a parent, but I can’t imagine how embarrassed I’d be if I had a grown child who consistently lied about their heritage and sidelined their family to achieve that goal.
I’m sure part of her panic is the realisation that one day her grown-up kids will read about this, so future humiliations are in store for her, too. Exhausting person is exhausting.
My main takeaway from this piece is that Serena Williams is now even cooler in my eyes for the France love.
Her parents seem to be incredibly indulgent with both their adult kids. The brother is selling dodgy herbal remedies in Spain I think with their endorsement. They have stood by while their daughter has basically gone bonkers , turned up to her Spanish wedding where she was so obsessed with her lie she wouldnt let her father walk her down the aisle because he was too white!
I listened to Dlisted podcast about this woman and really the stuff she did to make people think she is from Spain is bonkers. Like pretending she doesn’t know the word cucumber in English. That and a lot of crazy stuff
How do you say, ha ha in Spanish?
Ja ja ja.
ja ja.
lol
It’s true though! My best friend who is from Columbia (who speaks mostly Spanish now that’s she’s quarantining with extended family) texts me that all the time.
ha ha
😁
ja ja ja
She’s still claiming to be Spanish? The Daily Mail hired an actual genealogist to research the whole family tree, and they could not find a single person of actual Spanish descent in the tree – as far as can be told, Hillary is of English, Irish and German descent – a pretty common mix in the US. Seriously, they did the actual work and turns out, she’s 0% Spanish.
You know what I think this is? This is a woman with pretty common American roots – British, Irish and German people were among the largest immigrant groups to the US for a long time – who wanted to be, well, not so common. She needed to be exotic and interesting, and she thought her actual heritage was just too BLAND.
I assume her next step will be to get a 23andMe, and if there it turns out to show 1% DNA from “Mediterranean” sources, she will claim full validation.
I’m one of those people. Family came here in the early 18th century and yeah, we are basically 100% Northern European, mainly English, Welsh, Scottish and German….a bit of Irish and French, but that’s it. I do find my heritage interesting because my ancestors fought in the Revolution. Nothing wrong with that. But sure, it would have been fun to get back the test and see “10% Portuguese” or something. Still, I can’t imagine what is happening in this woman’s head to fake a whole identity because she isn’t satisfied to be who she is. It’s just such a house of cards. Crazy.
Why she even had these deals in the first place is a mystery. Yeah I get it she has Instagram followers, but why would anyone follow her? There are other yoga instructors out there. This crazy grift she’s been running is the most interesting part of her. She was just a nice looking and flexible woman who married one of the most unpleasant celebrities out there. Never saw the appeal.
Right? My guess is she’s relentless, and started pursuing deals as soon as she hooked up with Baldwin. She clearly wants to be a famous celebrity, but what for? Maybe all these deals offer some insight into the rapid succession of babies.
She probably only married Baldwin to gain fame.
Gwyneth Paltrow is actually fluent in Spanish. Can this Hillary chick even speak Spanish beyond a few words? I don’t think so since she though Ave Maria was Spanish.
Apparently neutral and even hostile Spanish speakers have confirmed her Spanish is pretty good. But that was 2 weeks ago–news may have been “adjusted” yet again.
I’m suspicious of those claims.
I follow Hillary and her husband on Instagram (they’ve been MESSES and I enjoy laughing at them) and I have never seen her pose with or feature any Spaniard friend or Latina friend on her page…does she have any friends who are Spaniards or Latinx??
She has spoken too little Spanish for anyone really to say it is that good. She says a few sentences nearly entirely in present tense, which in my experience in studying & having tutored & occasionally taught Spanish is by far the easiest to learn. These are on topics & in settings in which it is very likely she knew ahead of time what to speak about &, even if she didn’t, should have known to prepare to speak about these.
I am familiar with a number of instances of speaking a few rehearsed sentences in a passable accent by those who do not truly know the language. She seems to have an ear for trying to do an accent.
Though I do not know the accent from Spain as well as others, she doesn’t sound to me like Spaniards I have heard.
I think it is interesting that when her husband did press in Spain for a movie, she doesn’t seem to have spoken in Spanish to any media. That is, she doesn’t seem to have spoken to native Spaniards in media in Spanish while there.
I also think it telling that in about 1/3 of the really few, short times I’ve seen her speak, she deflects & says her non-Spaniard husband should speak Spanish instead, & he interrupts so she stops speaking.
Somewhere I read that Hillary’s Spanish and accent are excellent, but that she rarely switches *tenses*. That clicked with me: I’m decent enough at German, but I’m only really comfortable in present tense, and fluent German-speakers absolutely do notice that my grammar falls apart when I have to finally switch tenses.
I could not feel *less* sorry for her. Crazy, stupid and privileged, not good for the optics or anything else.
I also can’t help but remember the hard time people gave Sophia Vergara because they accused her of exaggerating her accent. Her eyes must be rolling out of her head at HTB right now. I would LOVE to hear from Sophia, Penelope, and Salma.
Same!
My problem with Hilary’s delusion is that many Hispanics – including Spaniards – face real biases solely based on our last names. The Washington Post just had an article about a UPS driver who refused to deliver a package once he saw the man’s name – Hugo Avila – which is of Spanish origin. That’s the reality of being Hispanic in this country. And the fact that she thinks she can cosplay a culture without experiencing the good and bad of it, is BS. On the other hand, this story has given me a greater appreciation of my culture – there are some things money nor fame can buy. No matter how much she wants to be Spanish, she is not. She is just a tourist.
Yeah, that’s part of it in a US context, isn’t it? The same kind of turd who insults “the Mexicans” typically can’t tell a Latin American from a European Spanish person anyway, so no surprise that happens, sadly. Someone from France, let’s say, just doesn’t face that same degree of up-front anti-Spanish-speaker bias that is so prevalent in the US. Sure, freedom fries, frog jokes, and super shitty impressions of French people abound, but it’s not comparable–the more so because those are born of inferiority complexes on the US side, not hideous anti-Latinx bigotry so entrenched there. One is a stereotype, the other an oppression.
I’m looking forward to the day she does a sit-down interview with Savannah Guthrie on the Today Show.
Internationally renowned Fake Spaniard! I am dying laughing right now!
BTW, Mallorca is a beautiful place to vacation. Plus a ‘charming’ American accent will get you lots of free drinks in the British bars there. And you can take a break from pretending you can’t pronounce cucumber.
I want to know do SNL ‘spare’ their own or are they going to do a freaking hilarious skit about this,and who will be Alec Baldwin ?🤣
Why didn’t she say “How do you say ‘pepino’ in English?” instead of waving around the damned cucumber?
I’d love for every celebrity with a fake personality & identity background to be exposed like this fake Spanish Bostonian. Enough of their smoke and mirror lives. We know she isn’t the only one faking her way through life for money and fame. She just seems to have invented it all in her own head as opposed to a PR team cultivating it in a board meeting.
This is nothing new profiting from lying, though it sets a back standard for our society.
Celebitichies, let’s get creative and brainstorm some new sponsor ideas for this woman:
Duolingo?
Ancestry.com?
Cosplay groups?
Babbel? Berlitz? Flamenco studio? Andalusian horse farm?
23andMe
Haha that’s the odd thing, right? A lot of us have ties to more than one country and language. My second language is French but I have never claimed to BE French. I also grew up in a bilingual environment and spent much of my education studying French culture and language, but I am not French at all. My third language is Chinese and I lived there for a decade and of course, there’s no possibility that I could ever claim to BE Chinese. I also gave my child a name that sounds good in all three languages I speak because those are the languages he/the people around him will likely speak. But that does not mean I claim these nationalities or cultures for him.
I think many people in former colonies who speak the language of the coloniser can relate to this. Take Western Africa or parts of SE Asia. We speak different languages, we have different ties, but we are not products of the source country/culture. So we do not claim to be. Unless she spent half of her life in Spain or grew up with Spanish parents, both of which could make her at least partly a cultural product of Spain, she just can’t make those claims. Sure, this can get a bit complex but the rest of us manage to sort through it while she swerved.
She shills for Spindrift, Mattel, Fisher-Price, Bissell, Glade Scented Candles, also Waxelene and let’s not forget Nivea, which sponsored her D&C after her miscarriage. Waxelene has a video of her on their IG and a number of people have posted comments about Hillary’s lies. And the Waxelene page manager is making snarky replies back to the people posting!
I saw Spindrift for the first time at a local store. At first, I started to think about trying it. Then I remembered I had first really heard of it for the first time due to Hilaria Baldwin & stayed away.
I hope those other companies end their sponsorships too since I like them, except Waxelene, which I’ve never heard of. I associate it only with her now.