Hilaria Baldwin’s long-running accent controversy is getting a new chapter—this time with a laugh.
According to Page Six, Baldwin recently attended a Valentine’s-themed lunch hosted by Gurus Magazine, where founder Derek Warburton addressed the room and slipped in a light jab at the scrutiny that has followed her for years.
Baldwin responded with a “thank you” delivered in the accent at the center of the debate, prompting Warburton to joke, “I love you, whatever accent they think you use,” drawing laughter from attendees.
The crowd reportedly included designer Nicole Miller, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast member Sutton Stracke, publicist Anna Rothschild, and former America’s Next Top Model judge Nolé Marin.
The moment signals a shift in tone from Baldwin, who once described the backlash as deeply painful, to someone now willing to treat the controversy as a punchline.
But outside of that room, the conversation around her identity—and how it was presented publicly—has not disappeared.
The scrutiny dates back to December 2020, when social media users began questioning inconsistencies in Baldwin’s background.
She was born Hillary Hayward-Thomas in Boston, Massachusetts, yet had spent years speaking with a Spanish-accented cadence in interviews and media appearances, at times suggesting a Spanish origin.
A 2015 Today show cooking segment in which she appeared to forget the English word for “cucumber” quickly resurfaced and became shorthand for the broader debate.
In response, Baldwin said she grew up spending time in both Boston and Spain, describing her upbringing as bilingual and multicultural.
She has consistently attributed her shifting accent to “code-switching,” explaining that her speech naturally changes depending on language and environment.
In her book Manual Not Included, she also cited ADHD and dyslexia as factors that impact how she communicates.
She has also defended her use of the name “Hilaria,” despite being born “Hillary,” stating that family members in Spain have long used that version.
Critics, however, have pointed out that “Hilaria” is not a direct Spanish equivalent of “Hillary,” noting that Spanish-language media typically refer to figures like Hillary Clinton by their original names rather than translated versions.
Questions have also been raised about the timeline of her connection to Spain. While Baldwin has said she spent parts of her childhood there, reports indicate that her parents relocated to Mallorca in 2011, when she was already an adult. Public records and past interviews have also described her upbringing as rooted in Boston, including ties to longstanding New England family history.
Online communities have continued to track and analyze these details in the years since. Members of the Hilaria Baldwin-focused subreddit—who refer to themselves as “Pepinos,” which is, incidentally, the Spanish word for cucumber, a clever callback to the Today appearance that sparked it all—frequently point out that her accent does not reflect a consistent Iberian Spanish cadence, but instead shifts between different inflections in Latin America.