Hilaria Baldwin is ready to talk about the accent drama.
In her new memoir, Manual Not Included, Baldwin gets frank about several public controversies, including the one that haunts her most: the allegations that being born and raised in Boston (to American parents, with no Spanish ancestry whatsoever) disqualifies her from being Spanish.
Aside from her marriage to Alec Baldwin, the Manual Not Included author is perhaps best known for her 2020 controversy, in which eagle-eyed fans discovered that although she identifies as Spanish, Baldwin (nee Hilary Hayward-Thomas) was born and raised in Boston.
That biographical tidbit conflicted with Baldwin’s entire public persona as someone who frequently discussed her “Spanish” identity.
In the decade or so leading up to this discovery, Baldwin had repeatedly claimed to have been born in Mallorca and had claimed Spanish was her first language. Most prominently, she’d consistently spoken with a Spanish accent. (Baldwin’s parents moved to Mallorca from Boston in 2011, when Hilaria was 27.)
Responding to the controversy at the time, Baldwin clarified that she was not actually born or raised in Mallorca, but said she was a “different kind of Bostonian,” because she had “spent some of her childhood in Spain.”
Now, in her memoir, Baldwin not only stands by her claims of Spanish identity, but assures readers she hasn’t forgotten about those who’ve critiqued her for it in the past. In fact, she now says the controversy is the story of naysayers “taking her voice.”
Baldwin references the controversy repeatedly throughout Manual Not Included. In one chapter, she calls the criticisms of her a “coordinated mob” and insinuates that her “cancellation” had sexist undertones. Later, she discusses the toll that being accused of faking her accent took on her mental health, writing, “I started to really unravel. I was confused. I felt lost. I missed my family… I started to question my sanity.”
“I teach my kids Spanish, we eat certain Spanish foods that I grew up eating, and these are comforts to me,” writes Baldwin, defending her chosen identity. “My brother raised his son in Spain, obviously immersed in Spanish culture and language, and made sure that my nephew spoke English and learned American culture too. Being this way is not taking anything from anyone. It’s just the way that we were raised.”
The yoga instructor also offered a new explanation for her fake accent: neurodivergence. Discussing her experiences with ADHD and dyslexia, the mom-of-seven referenced a 2015 appearance on the Today show (as part of its People en Español festival, no less) in which she appeared to forget the English word for cucumber, blaming the incident on her “processing differences.”
However, Baldwin writes that she’s since come to appreciate the unique way her brain is wired. “I have a brain that is one part English, one part Spanish, seven dollops of mom brain, and a heavy pour of distraction,” writes Baldwin. “If only you knew how loud it is in my brain at any given moment!”
While Baldwin may seem like she’s still hung up on the controversy, the author insists she’s actually “constantly practicing tuning out opinions.” Just don’t ask why she’s since dropped the accent.
The post Hilaria Baldwin Explains Her Fluctuating Spanish Accent appeared first on The Daily Beast.
