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It is the latest twist in an ongoing discussion in the US about identity and origins: Now actor Alex Baldwin's wife has to admit that she has made her origins and ancestry more exotic than she is.

"I was born in Boston and spent my youth partly in the USA and partly in Spain," said the 36-year-old on Monday (local time) in an Instagram video.

She grew up bilingual, which is why she also brings up her children bilingually.

Her maiden name is actually Hillary, according to the 36-year-old.

During her "numerous" stays in Spain, however, she always used the Spanish form Hilaria.

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Later she even made Hilaria her official name, because her family calls her that and there were also official documents with both names: "So I decided to merge these two names."

The five children also have Spanish names

Alec and Hilaria's five children also have Spanish names. Until recently, the yoga teacher's Instagram page read: “Mom of five Baldwinitos” - Leonardo, Carmen Gabriela, Rafael, Romeo Alejandro and Eduardo Pau ”.

On a website on which Baldwin advertised her services as a motivational speaker, her résumé also read: “Born in Mallorca, grew up in Boston”, as researched by the British “Guardian”, among others.

The online discussion about Hilaria Baldwin's origins - which meanwhile also made headlines in media like CNN - was sparked by the fact that the bustling Instagramer (870,000 followers) had spoken in interviews with and without a Spanish accent.

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In the past few days, numerous users had done research and found out quite a bit: For example, former classmates were identified who very well remembered going to school with a girl named Hillary Hayward-Thomas (and not "Hilaria") - and that not even in Spain, but in Massachusetts.

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A more detailed analysis of their attempts to speak Spanish also revealed inaccuracies.

A clip in which Baldwin speaks with a Spanish accent on the popular “Today” show and pretends to be a culinary expert on Balearic dishes attracted scorn and ridicule.

Among other things, she says: “We have very few ingredients.

We have tomatoes, we have, um, as you say in English ...., cucumbers. "

I was just misunderstood, she says now

It was not her fault that various media reports (including the Spanish magazine “Hola!”) Read about the celebrity couple - husband Alec is a well-known actor - that Hilaria Baldwin was born in Mallorca and was Spanish says the yoga teacher in the Instagram video.

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Reporters “misunderstood” her.

As a child, she was often on vacation in the country, and relationships then grew closer and closer.

“My family now lives permanently in Spain” - on Mallorca.

That is why she speaks both languages ​​regularly and sometimes tends more to one, sometimes more to the other: "My accent is one of my insecurities."

The young mother was partly mocked and partly criticized on social media.

Many commentators from the conservative spectrum referred to other, albeit more serious cases of “identity theft” or “cultural appropriation”.

For example, the white professor Rachel Dolezal, who posed as an African American for years, the former US presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, who claimed to be of American origin (which earned her the nickname Pocahontas from Donald Trump) and most recently the case of ( Jewish) history professor Jessica Krug, who claimed to be an "African-American" from the Bronx.

What all cases have in common is that evidently the (victim) status of minorities or an exotic origin as possible is intended to generate attention and, in some cases, material benefits.

In the case of Hilaria Baldwin, the material donations have now dried up for the time being: According to her own statements, the successful Instagramer now wants to cut back on her account.