Alec Baldwin’s wife Hilaria addresses ‘gold digger’ claims — why she really married him
Boss baby’s bank account.
In the first episode of their TLC reality show, “The Baldwins,” (premiering Sunday, Feb. 23 at 10 p.m.), Alec and Hilaria Baldwin address criticism that Hilaria is a “gold digger.”
During the premiere, tweets are shown of critics alleging that Hilaria, 41, married Alec, 66, for his fame and money.
The couple, who share seven kids, tied the knot in 2012 when Hilaria was 27 and Alec was 53.
“I haven’t Googled myself in a very long time, so I don’t know what the word on the street is, but I’ve heard some rumors,” Hilaria tells the cameras. “There’s certain things I can understand. If I looked at a 27-year-old yoga instructor that was dating a 53-year-old rich and famous actor, what would I think?”
Hilaria and Alec are the parents of Carmen, 11, Rafael, 9, Leonardo, 8, Romeo, 6, Eduardo and Marilu, 4, and Ilaria, 2. Alec also has an adult daughter, Ireland, 29, with his ex-wife, Kim Basinger.
The “It’s Complicated” star has frequently made headlines for having a short fuse and getting into altercations with photographers, but Hilaria feels “the world very much misunderstands Alec.”
“He is a very tender soul,” she explains.
Turning to Alec, she adds: “People think that I married you for money, fame, glamour, all of these things…Why I married you is because you’re a good looking guy. You were a good looking guy.”
Alec jokingly berates her for saying “were” in the past-tense.
“Can he be a curmudgeon? Absolutely. Can he be set in his ways? Absolutely,” she goes on. “But he’s really fantastic. He’s funny, he’s kind, he’s handsome, he’s extraordinarily smart, and he’s so generous.”
Before marrying the Emmy winner, Hilaria — the daughter of a Harvard med school professor mother and a Georgetown-educated lawyer father — describes herself as having a simple life of teaching yoga, “mopping the floors, cleaning the mats,” and being “happy as a clam.”
“So, all of a sudden this idea that I was going to marry Alec and walk around really fancy, that was not where my experience in life is,” she explains.
The “Beetlejuice” actor chimes in: “I fell in love with my wife because she’s so special. I had never met anybody like this before, never.”
He adds that when they met, “her life was, I’m not gonna say simple, but it was in a sense a lot simpler” without the publicity the couple regularly gets, “and some notoriety with it.”
Hilaria also addresses criticism that her Spanish accent is “fake” onscreen, and the couple open up about Baldwin’s manslaughter “Rust” trial.
A judge in July dismissed a charge of involuntary manslaughter against Baldwin in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
“This past year there was times I’d lay in bed and think, ‘Wow I can’t, I can’t get up,’” Alec reveals.
Hilaria maintains that amid the “Rust” tragedy, “everyone close to Alec has seen his mental health decline.”
“He was diagnosed with PTSD,” she adds. “In [Alec’s] darkest moments, [he thinks], ‘If an accident had to have happened this day, why am I still here, why couldn’t it have been me?””
“The Baldwins” airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on TLC.
