Hilaria Baldwin (born Hillary Lynn Hayward-Thomas, January 6, 1984) is an American yoga instructor, entrepreneur, podcaster, and author. She was the co-founder of a chain of New York-based yoga studios called Yoga Vida, and has released an exercise DVD and a wellness-focused book. Baldwin has been married to actor
Alec Baldwin since 2012.[2]
Early life
Hillary Lynn Hayward-Thomas[3] was born in
Boston, Massachusetts, on January 6, 1984[4] to Kathryn Hayward and David Thomas Jr.[5][6][7] Baldwin is of English, French-Canadian, German, Irish, and Slovak descent.[5] Hayward-Thomas has said that she was raised in a Spanish-speaking household and traveled to Spain annually.[8] Hayward-Thomas has stated that she has been a vegetarian since age five.[9] She has also stated that she began to use the name Hilaria "as she got older."[8]
Hayward-Thomas's paternal grandfather was David Lloyd Thomas Sr. (1927/1928–2020),[15] an "American with roots in the country that pre-dated the
American Revolution", and her paternal grandmother, Mary Lou (Artman) Thomas, was from
Nebraska.[10][15] Thomas Sr. was a native of
Ames, Iowa and traveled extensively to
Argentina as an
auditor for
General Electric and at one point lived there.[15][16] He exposed his children to world cultures and raised them to be proficient in Spanish.[15][16]
Hayward-Thomas started practicing
yoga at around age 20.[20] While attending New York University,[21] She opened the yoga studio Yoga Vida in 2009 along with Michael "Mike" Patton in the
West Village of New York City, which eventually opened three other locations in the
Noho,
Dumbo, and
Tribeca neighborhoods.[22][23][24] The Tribeca Citizen wrote in 2016 that their location had a range of classes, including "pre- and post-natal,
restorative, and
heated by infrared light".[25] In 2013, Spencer Wolff, a former student in one of her classes, sued her in
Manhattan Supreme Court for an injury he allegedly sustained in the class.[26][27] The lawsuit was settled a year later, with Wolff signing a
non-disclosure agreement.[28][better source needed]
In 2012, after marrying Alec Baldwin, Hilaria Baldwin became a lifestyle correspondent for the entertainment show Extra.[29]The New York Times wrote that Baldwin obtained that position because Alec was a friend of Steve Sunshine, a producer for the show.[3] In 2014, she shared a
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Entertainment News Program with her Extra colleagues.[30] She periodically worked with Extra in that role through 2014.[3]
In October 2013, Baldwin released an exercise DVD titled @ Home with Hilaria Baldwin: Fit Mommy-to-Be Prenatal Yoga. Alec appears during a five-minute "bonus section".[31] In June 2014, El País described Baldwin as the "
Gwyneth Paltrow" of New York City in reference to being a working wealthy mother.[32]
Baldwin wrote the book The Living Clearly Method, which was released December 2016. When the book released, Baldwin started an associated website under the same name to promote it.[33]
In 2017, Baldwin was awarded the Wellness Foundation's Illumination Award at that organization's summer benefit in
the Hamptons.[34]
In 2018, Baldwin partnered with podcaster
Daphne Oz to create Mom Brain, a motherhood-focused
podcast.
Refinery29 described it as "a deep-dive into every single corner of motherhood, ranging from the serious moments to the hilarious ones, and everything in between".[35] The two hosts went on The Rachael Ray Show in November 2018 to talk about the project,[36] followed by the Today show in December of that year.[37] As of May 2021, Baldwin had not recorded any more episodes since the start of the allegations of cultural appropriation in December 2020.[38] Baldwin later launched two other podcasts, What’s One More? with husband Alec Balwin and Witches Anonymous with jewelry designer Michelle Campbell.[39]
In February 2019, Baldwin and her husband spoke to a
United Nations panel about food choices and a sustainable planet at the launch of the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Health and Planet initiative.[40] Baldwin was identified as a "wellness expert" on the panel.[9]
In February 2011, Hilaria Thomas met Alec Baldwin at
Sarma Melngailis' New York restaurant Pure Food and Wine.[48] Around August that year, the two began dating.[1] They moved from the
Upper West Side to
Greenwich Village that August.[49] The couple became engaged in April 2012[1] and married on June 30, 2012, in a Catholic ceremony at
St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in New York City.[50] The Spanish phrase Somos un buen equipo (English: We're a great team) is engraved[51] on the inside of their
wedding bands.[52] The couple have seven children together.[53] Baldwin is also stepmother to
Ireland Baldwin, Alec's daughter from his previous marriage to American actress
Kim Basinger.[54]
Baldwin has said that she suffered from
anorexia nervosa and
bulimia in her high school years and early twenties.[55] In her book Baldwin recounted she suffered health issues and was miserable; feeling that way motivated her future career as a healthy lifestyle advocate.[56] Baldwin stated she started getting better when she started "thinking of weight and health separately".[57] Baldwin is a
pescetarian.[58][59]
After her husband accidentally
fatally shot cinematographer
Halyna Hutchins with a prop gun in October 2021, Baldwin posted on her
Instagram, "My heart is with Halyna. Her husband. Her son. Their family and loved ones. And my Alec."[60]
Ancestry and background
Baldwin is of English, French-Canadian, German, Irish, and Slovak descent.[5] In December 2020, a
Twitter user accused Baldwin of "impersonat[ing] a Spanish person" and posted a number of video clips of Baldwin speaking with a
Spanish accent, including a clip from the Today Show in which Baldwin seemingly forgot the English word for "cucumber".[10][61] The tweets prompted a number of news articles and accusations of
cultural appropriation,[62][63][64][65] since at other times she was heard speaking
American-accented English.[66] Her
agency's website listed her birthplace as Mallorca rather than Boston.[5] Commentators noted that Baldwin was often misidentified as either Mallorcan, Spanish, or
Latina, encouraging positive press by Hispanic media such as the Spanish-language celebrity gossip magazine ¡Hola![67][8]
Baldwin responded that she identifies as white, and her ethnic background includes "many, many, many things".[69] Baldwin states that she was raised in a Spanish-speaking household.[8] 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.[5][70] She has stated that she began to use the name Hilaria "as she got older". Baldwin also asserted in a New York Times interview that her inability to remember the word "cucumber" on Today came from
stage fright during one of her first television appearances. She added that she is
bilingual and her accent comes and goes depending on stress and other factors.[8]
In July 2021, Baldwin described herself as "multi" and culturally "fluid".[71]