Ireland Baldwin may not be Hilaria Baldwin’s blood relation, but she is stepping up and defending her father’s new wife from the recent controversy that she found herself embroiled in.
E! Online reports that the 25-year-old model and actress took to her Instagram account to defend Hilaria Baldwin from accusations that she is faking her Spanish heritage. In her post, she talked about her parents’ divorce and expressed her distaste for bullying.
The model recalled how the public had looked into the divorce between her parents Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, as well as her own time spent in a mental rehabilitation facility. She also said that other aspects of her private life had also been made public.
Fox News adds that Baldwin also called her stepmother “strong, kind, and caring” and declared that she would not be discussing her stepmother’s business and family background with other people any longer.
The actress noted that educating oneself and expressing anger and frustration is okay. However, she called the response to the Hilaria Baldwin controversy as online bullying and that sending threats and other similar messages do not make for a learning experience.
The story of Hilaria Baldwin supposedly appropriating Spanish culture came to a head yesterday after the 36-year-old had to go to her Instagram account to explain her side after a tweet alleged that she had spent a decade pretending to be Spanish.
That tweet resulted in people digging up Hilaria Baldwin’s past and discovering that her name was actually Hillary Hayword-Thomas before she got married to Alec Baldwin. Former classmates also started popping up, saying that she was not Spanish and was just “a white girl from Cambridge.”
In the Instagram Live, Hilaria Baldwin admitted that she was indeed named Hillary but that she uses Hilaria when she is in Spain. The yoga teacher and podcaster also revealed that she was actually born in Massachusetts and not in Mallorca, as her online biography says.
Baldwin also posted photos of her as a teenager in Spain and said that her childhood was spent both in Spain and in Massachusetts. She also posted a screenshot of a message from her brother. The whole conversation was in Spanish.
Aside from Ireland, Alec Baldwin also came to the defence of his wife. He called out “completely false” claims he says have been printed about her. The actor also tweeted that Hilaria had spent much of her childhood in Spain.
Another celebrity that has had to weather an online firestorm is singer Rita Ora, whose recent breaking of lockdown rules in the United Kingdom by holding a birthday party resulted in widespread criticism from the public.
Ora eventually had to describe her party as an “error or judgment” and apologized for her decision to hold it. She also had to pay a £10,000 fine to the authorities because of her breaking lockdown rules.