Hilaria Baldwin Claims Her Culture Is 'Fluid' 7 Months After Heritage Controversy

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Taylor Hill/FilmMagic Hilaria Baldwin

Hilaria Baldwin has shared a lengthy post about what she calls her "fluid" cultural expression, seven months after a controversy over her background first unfolded.

The 37-year-old mom of six was accused in late December of misrepresenting her heritage. Social media users at the time alleged she had frequently, and for years, falsely claimed to have Spanish roots and often took on a fake Spanish accent despite being born and raised in the United States. She later apologized for not being "more clear" about her cultural background.

Now, in an Instagram post on Thursday, the yoga instructor and wife of Alec Baldwin said she recently reunited with her side of the family for the first time in almost two years due to the pandemic, and that they discussed "how we grew up, our languages, our cultures — multi [and] very valid."

"When you are multi, it can feel hard to belong," she continued. "You are constantly going back and forth, trying to be more this or more that. You feel you have to explain why you are the way you are, trying to fit into a world of labels when there might not be one that perfectly defines you. You will never quite fit in because the other parts of you shape and influence all your parts."

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When the controversy first arose, Hilaria clarified that she was born in Boston, and that her birth name is Hillary. She said she grew up spending time with her family between Massachusetts and Spain, where her parents live.

In her subsequent apology in February, she said her parents raised her and her brother "with two cultures, American and Spanish," and that she feels "a true sense of belonging to both."

"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," she added at the time.

RELATED: Hilaria Baldwin Says She's 'Listening, Reflecting' After Heritage Controversy — 'I'm Sorry'

On Thursday, she asserted that "we all get to curate our individual expressions of our cultures, languages, who we love, what we believe in, how we dress, present ourselves," and that "this is the right that each person should have."

She also declared that culture, languages, sexual orientations, religions and political beliefs are things that "are ALLOWED TO BE FLUID."

Some Twitter users are taking issue with the claim that culture and heritage can be "fluid," with one person writing, "Hilaria Baldwin doesn't get to hijack the LGBTQ+ experience with her multi/fluid/race/ethnicity creation." (Fluid is a term often used to describe sexuality.)

Hilaria shared the message alongside a photo of her eldest child, daughter Carmen Gabriela, 7½, holding up a painting she made that blended various colors together. She and Alec share six kids: daughters Carmen and María Lucía Victoria, 4 months, plus sons Rafael Thomas, 6, Leonardo Ángel Charles, 4½, Romeo Alejandro David, 3, and Eduardo "Edu" Pao Lucas, 10 months.

alec and hilaria baldwin
alec and hilaria baldwin

Lars Niki/Getty

Days after the initial controversy arose, Hilaria spoke out in an interview with The New York Times, contending that those accusing her of being dishonest had "been confused in some ways by people misrepresenting me."

She claimed she never read the multiple Hola! stories about her that identified her as Spanish, and said she found it "disappointing" that her biography on the website of her agency, the Creative Artists Agency, stated she was born in Mallorca, Spain, where her parents now reside. (It was changed amid the controversy.)

Ahead of the Times interview, social media users had pointed out that Hilaria had claimed she moved to the U.S. from Spain at age 19 to attend New York University in an April 2020 appearance on the #MomTruths podcast.

She had also frequently made media appearances using a Spanish accent, including one on Today where she appeared to forget the English word for "cucumber."

She was thus accused of impersonating a culture that is not her own, with Reveal reporter Aura Bogado tweeting in December, "The fact that @hilariabaldwin pretended to be from Spain with that ridiculous accent, while some of us have been denied opportunities for our actual accents, is disgusting."