When Hilaria Baldwin’s red carpet evisceration of husband Alec went viral last week, the snorts of laughter in Hollywood could barely be contained.
In footage shared millions of times on social media, yoga instructor Hilaria, 41, snapped at her 66-year-old movie star husband after he interrupted her during an interview, sniping irritably: ‘Oh my god. When I’m talking, you’re not talking.’
As her husband mumbled ‘I’m sorry’, Hilaria doubled down on the public tongue-lashing, throwing her hands up and repeating: ‘When I’m talking, you’re not talking!’
Within hours of the cringeworthy spat at Planet Hollywood in Manhattan going public, social media influencer Hilaria posted a jokey video to her nearly one million Instagram followers, in which a grovelling Alec apologised for his ‘manterrupting’ and ‘correctile dysfunction’.
But the excruciating public humiliation of a man who once, it’s claimed, inspired ‘fear and loathing’ in Hollywood, drew glee from those who say they were ‘terrorised’ by the star’s aggressive and intimidating behaviour.
One former studio executive told The Mail on Sunday: ‘People are relishing the fact that karma has finally come for Alec. He terrorised movie sets for years with his behaviour, and now he’s being publicly ridiculed by his much younger wife. It’s delightful. There’s only one person wearing the pants in that household, and it ain’t Alec.’
Social media influencer Hilaria Baldwin loses her patience with husband Alec at Planet Hollywood in Manhattan
On Thursday, Hilaria, who has seven children with Baldwin, appeared on the Today show on America’s NBC network and seemed to repeat the sentiments she expressed on the red carpet. ‘Since I met Alec a lot of people have spoken for me, have taken my narrative,’ she said. ‘I don’t want that any more.’
Alec’s slap-down represents a dramatic volte-face in the public’s perception of the couple which, until recently, firmly placed Alec in the driving seat of their 12-year marriage.
Experts say it is clear the balance in the relationship has flipped. Eric Schiffer, of Reputation Management Consultants, said: ‘Alec is someone who was known in Hollywood for being macho, for flying off the handle, for being aggressive’.
He cited Baldwin’s volatile marriage to first wife Kim Basinger and his ‘appalling’ treatment of their daughter Ireland who, during their contentious 2002 divorce -– when she was just 11 – he called a ‘pig’ and ‘daughter of a bitch’ for not picking up the phone when he rang.
Mr Schiffer said: ‘Clearly he’s worked on his anger management issues to keep his current wife and family together. He’s learned from past mistakes, which is an admirable trait. But what happened on the red carpet between Hilaria and Alec is an abomination. It’s not healthy for either partner.
‘He was utterly humiliated in public which, much as they want to joke about it, will have been devastating for an old-school macho man like Alec.
‘Hilaria comes across as unhinged. She’s pushing her way in front of the cameras and the dynamic is very much one of a young, attention-seeking spouse and an older husband who is desperately trying not to upset her.’
As a couple, they’ve certainly come a long way since they met outside a New York vegan restaurant in 2011. Bizarrely, she claimed she didn’t know who he was because she ‘never watched TV’.
When they married in the Basilica of St Patrick’s Old Cathedral in Manhattan in 2012, to the congregation it looked like Alec had bagged himself an exotic Spanish senorita. There were nods to her ‘heritage’ everywhere: she wore a traditional Spanish lace veil ‘mantilla’ and cooled herself with a flamenco hand fan while the pair exchanged rings engraved with ‘somos un buen equipo’ – meaning ‘we are a good team’.
Within hours of the cringeworthy spat going public, Hilaria posted a video to her nearly one million Instagram followers, in which a grovelling Alec apologised for his ‘manterrupting’
She claimed to have been born in Spain, spoke with a hint of a Spanish accent and, during one infamous TV cookery segment, seemed to forget the English word for ‘cucumber’.
Yet it turned out Hilaria was as American as apple pie, having been born in Boston with the real name Hillary. Alec was forced to leap to the rigorous defence of his wife from what he called ‘online bullying’ as she was accused of cultural appropriation.
At one point, the argument entered the realms of parody as Alec insisted Hilaria was ‘almost Spanish’ because she went to Majorca on holiday as a child and her brother and parents now live on the island.
The growing power imbalance has been playing out on the Discovery+ TV channel in the family’s reality show The Baldwins, which, inexplicably, the actor chose to film last summer as he faced involuntary manslaughter charges for accidentally shooting cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust in 2021.
While charges against Baldwin were later dropped, critics have panned the show, accusing the couple of callously exploiting their seven photogenic young children to create ‘positive PR’ for themselves in the wake of the tragedy. The Mail’s TV critic Christopher Stevens gave the show one star, describing Hilaria has having ‘the air of a bargain-basement Meghan Markle’. And he ended his review saying: ‘Last week, Alec Baldwin was just a has-been actor to me. Now I know exactly who he and his wife are. What hideous people.’
Alec’s reputation and professional standing seemed irreparably damaged following the appalling, accidental shooting of 42-year-old Ms Hutchins.
In a scandalous oversight, a prop revolver, which Alec was using on set, actually contained a live round. Ms Hutchins died and director Joel Souza was injured, leading to both Alec and the set armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed being charged with one count each of involuntary manslaughter, while assistant director David Halls agreed to plead guilty to a charge of the negligent use of a deadly weapon.
Alec Baldwin with his yoga instructor second wife Hilaria and their seven children
Gutierrez-Reed was sentenced to 18 months in jail, and Halls received a six-month probation order.
Speaking on The Baldwins, Hilaria tells how her husband was ‘suicidal’ following the incident, and suffered ‘survivor’s guilt’, adding: ‘It’s hard sometimes.’
On the show, a clearly emotional Alec is seen attending therapy with his wife. Head in hands, he says: ‘I don’t think I could have survived this without you and the kids.’
Baldwin is still sensitive about the issue. Last month he threatened to punch a comedian impersonating Donald Trump who approached him outside the couple’s £10 million Manhattan apartment, making dubious jokes about the shooting.
Reputation manager Mr Schiffer, who knows the Baldwin family, said: ‘I’m not sure Alec is comfortable putting his family front and centre this way.
‘But what do any of us know about what happens behind closed doors in a marriage?
‘I’d be inclined to say Alec is trying to hold it all together for the sake of the seven children he has with Hilaria.
‘He’s 66. He doesn’t need this drama. When you watch him on the reality show he doesn’t look comfortable. He adores his wife. And she’s leading the way.’
Another former colleague, who worked with Alec on the 1990 thriller The Hunt For Red October, also applauds the change in him, saying: ‘I hadn’t seen him in years. He always had anger issues, he made no secret of them. In the early days of his career, he was drinking and doing drugs and, I think, that added to his volatility.
‘He got out of Hollywood and went to New York. People in LA couldn’t stand him and we were happy to see him go, and I think the feeling was mutual. After he and Kim split up he wanted to get the hell out. Alec was never going to lead an uneventful life.
‘But I watch him with Hilaria in the reality TV show, I think it’s sweet. He clearly adores her and she’s given him the family he’s always wanted.’
As for Hilaria, cynics believe she has got what she always wanted too: fame. And she shows no sign of backing away from the spotlight.
On Thursday morning – even as critics were dissecting her brutal take-down of her husband – she popped up on the top-rated NBC Today show with the couple’s 11-year-old daughter Carmen to promote a new beauty book containing tips for pre-teenagers.
Yet for all the speculation about their relationship, for those who have seen the couple together it’s clear it works for them, however feisty and combative it seems. A colleague who attended Hilaria’s yoga class in 2017 was surprised to see an adoring Alec waiting in the wings.
‘I remember that he couldn’t keep his hands off her,’ she recalls. ‘He was obviously mad about her.’
There are others who remember Hilaria back in her Boston days, when she still known as Hillary Lynn Hayward-Thomas.
David Golann, 41, who attended The Cambridge School of Weston with her, told the Mail: ‘She was always a kind, reserved person. It sounds like she’s changed.’
‘Back then she certainly made no claims to Spanish heritage. On the contrary, she was proud that her family dated back to the pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower.
‘She was always nice and kind to me. Everyone can draw their own conclusions [about what happened last week] and they will.’
For Hilaria, it’s now back to business as usual. She has a ‘full schedule’ to promote her book with Carmen, which is entitled
Glowing Up: Recipes To Rock Your Natural Beauty. She has also engineered to be on the cover of the People celebrity magazine to promote the reality show, with an interview in which she spoke about her husband suffering post-traumatic stress disorder after the Rust shooting. But, in Hollywood, sceptism remains.
The Baldwins came after Alec won acclaim for his parody of Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, an American comedy institution especially popular with the Left.
One person familiar with the production said the series was commissioned with the hope that Kamala Harris would win the US election in November, but Trump’s return to power has changed the political climate.
The source said: ‘When it was commissioned, Joe Biden was in the White House. Alec Baldwin is an ultra-liberal who played Trump on Saturday Night Live. He’s yesterday’s man, but he knows what’s going on. He’s many things but he’s not stupid.’
Nor, many would say, is his wife, who’s never slow in spotting an opportunity. As the insider says: ‘Don’t underestimate Hilaria.’
