Alec and Hilaria Baldwin welcomed their seventh child, but the name they've given her has social media users side-eyeing the couple hard.
The couple now have seven children under the age of 10 and Hilaria Baldwin is the stepmother to Ireland Baldwin, Alec Baldwin's 26-year-old daughter with his ex-wife, actress Kim Basinger.
But the latest addition to their brood already appears to be saddled with a most unfortunate name.
Hilaria Baldwin posted a video to Instagram announcing the birth of Ilaria Catalina Irena, adding that her "Baldwinito siblings are spending the day bonding and welcoming her into our home."
You can see the video below.
However, the birth brought to mind Hilaria Baldwin's recent scandal after a Twitter user accused her of "impersonating" a Spanish person and posted a number of video clips of Baldwin speaking with a contrived Spanish accent, including one where she appeared to forget the English word for "cucumber."
The tweets prompted a number of news articles and accusations of cultural appropriation, since at other times she was heard speaking American accented English.
Additionally, her agency's website listed her birthplace as Mallorca rather than Boston and commentators noted Baldwin is often misidentified as either Mallorcan, Spanish, or Latina, encouraging positive press by Hispanic media such as the Spanish-language celebrity gossip magazine ¡Hola!
Hilaria Baldwin—whose birth name is Hillary Lynn Hayward-Thomas—has a mother named Kathryn and a grandmother named Irene, and it appears her seventh child is named after the Spanish versions of all three names.
None of this was overlooked by eagle-eyed social media users who criticized Hilaria Baldwin and revived accusations of cultural appropriation.
The backlash against Hilaria Baldwin prompted her critics to compare her to Rachel Dolezal, the former college instructor and activist known for presenting herself as a Black woman despite having been born to white parents.
In response to negative press—including a piece in The Atlantic that referred to her as an "identity hoaxer"—Hilaria Baldwin has said that she identifies as White, and her ethnic background includes "many, many, many things." She said she spent "some" of her childhood in Spain and "some" in Massachusetts, but had never been enrolled in school in Spain, only spending time there during family holidays.
The scandal also inspired a subreddit dedicated to the cultural appropriation scandal, which Hilaria Baldwin has never commented on directly.
@jessicachastain/Instagram
