Hilaria Baldwin’s dance partner says she ALWAYS wanted to be Spanish

Hilaria Baldwin’s ex dance partner says she always wanted to be considered Spanish and has confirmed he knew her as Hillary for the duration of their time together. 

Alexander Rechits told The New York Times: ‘The whole ‘Hilaria’ thing is hilarious to me. It was always her desire to be considered Spanish.’

The 36-year-old wife of Alec Baldwin was forced to confess to her 859,000 Instagram followers on Sunday that her real name is Hillary and that she was born in Boston and not Majorca.

Rechits, who danced with Hilaria between 2006 and 2009 is from Belarus, added: ‘I understand why she did it. She had roots in Spain, her brother lived there, she visited there a lot.

‘But Hillary is a very good strong name, so why would you change that when you were born here and you weren’t born in Spain?

‘I have a lot of nicknames in Russian. But I’m still Alexander everywhere I go.’ 

In that same article Hilaria told the paper she ‘hid’ her Boston upbringing so as to protect her parents from media scrutiny after she began dating Baldwin – who she says has always known she is from New England. 

Alexander Rechits says he his former dance partner Hilaria always wanted to be considered Spanish and has confirmed he knew her as Hillary for the duration of their time together. The two are pictured competing together 

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 person

Hilaria revealed the truth about her upbringing in a rambling Instagram video on Sunday

 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 person

Attempting to stem the backlash she’s faced after being accused of a decade-long ‘Spanish grift’, the influencer and wife of Alec Baldwin has given an 80-minute cringe-worthy interview with the New York Times to ‘clarify’ her story.  

The influencer says And she also attempts to explain away the now infamous Today cooking segment where she she ‘forgot’ the word for cucumber and claims it was because she was nervous on live TV.    

She denies she is guilty of cultural appropriation and that she ever tried to pretend she was Spanish at any time.  

Rechits told The New York Times : 'The whole ¿Hilaria¿ thing is hilarious to me. It was always her desire to be considered Spanish'

Rechits told The New York Times : ‘The whole ‘Hilaria’ thing is hilarious to me. It was always her desire to be considered Spanish’

Rechits, who danced with Hilaria between 2006 and 2009 is from Belarus, added: 'I understand why she did it. She had roots in Spain , her brother lived there, she visited there a lot'

Rechits, who danced with Hilaria between 2006 and 2009 is from Belarus, added: ‘I understand why she did it. She had roots in Spain , her brother lived there, she visited there a lot’

Rechits, said Hillary 'is a very good strong name, so why would you change that'

Rechits, said Hillary ‘is a very good strong name, so why would you change that’

However, during the course of the interview the mother-of-five reveals yet more contradictions about her upbringing as she attempts to claim she has always been honest about being from Boston. 

The downfall of Hilaria’s apparent grift came on December 21 when a Twitter user under the handle @Lenibriscoe began a thread in which she highlighted her faltering Spanish accent and revealed her New England upbringing.  

Hilaria had initially denied the allegations stating that it was only ‘Fake Twitter accounts accusing me of a fake identity!’ yet was later forced to back down and reveal more about her Massachusetts background after thousands of comments.  

They influencer said that she is a bilingual speaker and claimed that she speaks English in varying degrees of a Spanish accent depending on her emotions at the time, in response to the numerous videos showcasing her changing accent. 

She alleges that she did not know that magazine ¡Hola! had written that she is Spanish as she does not read pieces about herself. 

And claims that talent organization Creative Artists Agency must have pulled their bio that states she was born in Mallorca, Spain, from the internet without fact checking. 

‘I rarely at all work with C.A.A. now,’ she said. ‘It was very disappointing.’ 

Hillary Thomas-Hayward officially became Hilaria Baldwin when she wed husband Alec, with tributes to her claimed Spanish roots, with the bride wearing a mantilla-inspired veil, cooling herself with a flamenco hand fan and nuptial readings in both English and Spanish

Hillary Thomas-Hayward officially became Hilaria Baldwin when she wed husband Alec, with tributes to her claimed Spanish roots, with the bride wearing a mantilla-inspired veil, cooling herself with a flamenco hand fan and nuptial readings in both English and Spanish 

CAN’T KEEP TRACK OF HER OWN STORY: HILARIA’S LATEST CONTRADICTIONS 

How she met Alec: 

Hilaria claimed that she told husband Alec from the off that she was from Boston despite his now infamous 2013 Letterman interview in which he claimed she is Spanish. 

‘My wife is from Spain,’ the 62-year-old had said. 

‘I walked by him,’ Hilaria told the Times of meeting Alec in a vegan restaurant in 2011. 

‘He said, “Where are you from?” And I said, “I’m from Boston.” That was the first thing I said, that has always been my narrative.’

Yet, two years later, Alec was on Letterman saying she was from Spain, which she did not give an explaination for. 

Why her Spanish accent changes: 

Hilaria says that despite being raised in Boston, she speaks in English with a Spanish accent depending on her emotions at the time.  

The Today Show incident:

The 36-year-old also claimed she was confused about the word for cucumber on the ‘Today Show’ because she was nervous to be on live TV for one of the first times. 

Yet she is clearly heard asking for the word in English. 

How much time she has spent in Spain:

Hilaria now says that she was born in Boston but started to visit Spain annually as a baby, implying she only vacationed in the country. 

She has previously only spoken about the Spanish island Mallorca where her parents and older brother like but not claims to have spent most of their family vacation time on mainland Spain in Madrid, Seville and Valencia. 

She told the Times that Spain ‘was part of my childhood’ but could not say how much time she had spent there in total.  

Claim she went to school in Spain:  

‘Sometimes there was school involved. Sometimes it was vacation. It was such a mix, mishmash, is that the right word? Like a mix of different things.’

In the interview, Hilaria suggested that she went to school in Spain but there is not evidence of this.  

Her move to NYC: 

The story she told the New York Times leaves ambiguity on whether she moved to New York from Spain as she has previously said or whether she moved from another part of the US. 

‘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,’ she told the Times.

‘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.’

Yet Hilaria had previously said she moved from Spain.   

Profiles stating she was born in Spain: 

Hilaria alleges that she did not know that magazine ¡Hola! had written that she is Spanish as she does not read pieces about herself. 

And claims that talent organization Creative Artists Agency must have pulled their bio that states she was born in Mallorca, Spain, from the internet without fact checking.     

One of the most joked about incidents over the past week has been the ‘Today Show’ appearance in which she asked for the English word for cucumber, which she says was because she was confused due to live TV nerves.  

‘The things I have shared about myself are very clear,’ Hilaria 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.’ 

This new timeline leaves ambiguity over her move to New York and whether she arrived there from Spain, as previously claimed, or from another part of the US. 

She could also not tell the Times exactly how much time she had spent in Spain when she was younger. 

‘I think it would be maddening to do such a tight time line of everything,’ she said. 

‘You know, sometimes there was school involved. Sometimes it was vacation. It was such a mix, mishmash, is that the right word? Like a mix of different things.’ 

‘When we weren’t in Spain, we called it “we brought Spain into our home”,’ she added. 

There is no evidence to show that she ever attended school in Spain.   

Hilaria now states that she first visited Spain as a baby and the family made frequent trips after that. 

She has previously spoken only of going to Mallorca, where her parents and older brother now live, yet now claims that they spent much of their time in Madrid, Seville and Valencia.  

Hilaria states that they still spoke Spanish and cooked Spanish food when at home in Boston and that her family had always called her Hilaria, despite everyone else knowing her as Hilary until at least 2009.   

Hilaria said in Wednesday’s interview that she had never told her husband that she was from Spain, despite his now infamous 2013 Letterman interview in which Alec had claimed she is Spanish. 

‘My wife is from Spain,’ the 62-year-old had said. 

‘I walked by him,’ Hilaria told the Times of meeting Alec in a vegan restaurant in 2011. 

‘He said, “Where are you from?” And I said, “I’m from Boston.” That was the first thing I said, that has always been my narrative.’

She also answered back to people who have criticized her for referring to Spain as home, when she has not revealed how much time she has truely spent there. 

‘Home is where my parents are going to be,’ she said. ‘If my parents move to China, I am going to go to China and say, “I’m going home”.’

‘These people who I call my family, I am learning in this particular situation, I have to say, “People who we have considered to be our family”.)’ 

Hilaria added that she believed herself steeped in two cultures through her family’s vacations there and that Spain had been a massive part of her father’s childhood. 

‘He would go there when he was younger and created these deep, deep, deep bonds and it was something that was part of my childhood,’ Hilaria claims. 

‘It was something my father introduced to my mother when they met, when they were pretty young.’ 

Hilaria had left her parents off her 2012 wedding announcement because she claims she was trying to shield them from the press attention that would come from marrying a celebrity. 

She says that she also purposefully avoided sharing details on her upbringing for the same reason. 

 

Yet she once told Vanity Fair España her Spanish parents had difficulty pronouncing her married surname. 

‘Where does something stop being your story and start being someone else’s?’ she asked. 

‘You are entitled to your privacy. I am entitled to my privacy. People say, “No, you’re not entitled to your privacy because you married a famous person and you have Instagram.” Well, that’s not really true.’  

Hilaria says that her own upbringing with emphasis on Spanish culture is why she is now so determined to recreate the same for her children, sending them to a bilingual school, speaking Spanish at home, and planning to spend more time with her family in Mallorca after the pandemic. 

‘My family, this is where they’ve decided to spend their lives,’ she said. 

‘I guarantee you they are going to live there and they are going to die there. That’s their home and that’s because this is not something new, no one put a map up on the wall and threw a dart at it and said, “Oh, Spain sounds good”.’  

DailyMail.com can reveal that she grew up in this 100-year-old $4million house in the heart of the most desirable district in Boston called Beacon Hill

DailyMail.com can reveal that she grew up in this 100-year-old $4million house in the heart of the most desirable district in Boston called Beacon Hill

Hilaria has long described her mother as Spanish, yet records revealed that Dr Kathyrn Hayword is in fact a fourth-generation Massachusetts resident. 

Both she and husband David Thomas worked as professors in the US for years before retiring to Majorca in 2011, according to Page Six

Hilaria’s father’s family has even deeper ties to the US, having lived here since before the American Revolution. 

On Wednesday, DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that Hilaria grew up in a 100-year-old $4million house in the heart of the most desirable district in Boston. 

Hialria's parents Dr Kathyrn Hayword and David Thomas have deep ties in the US

Hialria’s parents Dr Kathyrn Hayword and David Thomas have deep ties in the US

Records show her parents bought the five-bed, five-bath house on Pinckney Street in June 1987 when their daughter was just three years old.

They didn’t move out till she had turned 28, despite her claims of long periods of time spent in Spain. 

‘I don’t know what she is talking about,’ said the family’s former neighbor. ‘She lived here since she was a child. She didn’t call herself Hilaria then –  just Hillary. And she certainly didn’t speak with a Spanish accent.

‘Once I was really upset with her and asked her to shut the gate to stop the dog getting out and she just looked at me and said: “I’ve lived here for 19 years,” and stormed away.

‘She was a very entitled young lady.’   

Nowhere in her family tree does the mother-of-five have any ties to Spain, with the only connection being vacationing in the European country during her childhood and her parents retiring to the island of Majorca in 2011.   

Hilaria posted a rambling seven-minute video to Instagram on Sunday days after claims that she’s spent years misrepresenting her heritage went viral on Twitter. Users shared videos presented as evidence that her Spanish accent isn’t real. 

‘Yes, I am a white girl. I am a white girl,’ the 36-year-old influencer admitted. 

‘Let’s be very clear that Europe has a lot of white people in there and my family is white. Ethnically, I am a mix of many, many, many things. Culturally, I grew up with two cultures so it’s really as simple as that.’  

Her video sparked a flurry of memes with some jokingly comparing her to Rachel Dolezal and Jessica Krug. 

Krug, a professor of African American history at George Washington University, pretended to be black her entire career; Dolezal, a former NAACP leader, was unmasked as a white woman in 2015.    

The NYU alum and her 62-year-old husband gave all five of their children Spanish names – daughter Carmen Gabriela, 7; son Rafael Thomas, 5; son Leonardo Ángel, 4; son Romeo Alejandro, 2; and son Eduardo ‘Edu’ Pao Lucas, 3 months.

As for her name, Hilaria said she’d use Hillary in the States and Hilaria in Spain. 

‘My whole family call me Hilaria. It always kind of bothered me that neither name sounds good in the other language. So I would use one or the other one,’ she said.  

Hilaria's husband Alec took to Instagram on Sunday - not to address the allegations, but rather to blast outlets like TMZ and the New York Post for printing claims he called 'spectacularly false'

Hilaria’s husband Alec took to Instagram on Sunday – not to address the allegations, but rather to blast outlets like TMZ and the New York Post for printing claims he called ‘spectacularly false’

'I miss them so much': Baldwin noted that '44 people from Spain' attended her 2012 wedding to Oscar nominee Alec Baldwin (L), but she hasn't seen her family since September 2019 because of 'the pandemic'

‘I miss them so much’: Baldwin noted that ’44 people from Spain’ attended her 2012 wedding to Oscar nominee Alec Baldwin (L), but she hasn’t seen her family since September 2019 because of ‘the pandemic’

As for husband Alec, he is publicly backing his wife’s claims. ‘You are my life. And hard as it is now, the dog barks, but the parade goes on. I love you,’ he posted in a message to Hilaria on Instagram.

‘You never claimed you were from Spain. You always maintained you were born here,’ he wrote.

‘It is troubling to watch people lie about what you have said and not said. You are the most principled and decent woman I have ever known.

‘You are a woman born in America, raised for many years in another land and proud of your dual upbringing. You haven’t faked anything. Ever,’ he added.

He’d earlier tweeted: ‘Fake? Exaggerated? Appropriated an accent as an adult? She lived in Spain for many years as a child. She lived both places.’ 



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