Hilaria Baldwin showed empathy to the world on Friday morning. Literally.
The morning after New Mexico prosecutors announced they would charge her husband, Alec Baldwin, with two counts of involuntary manslaughter for 2021's fatal "Rust" shooting, the mother of seven was spotted in New York City sporting an emerald green sweatshirt with the word "empathy" stamped on the front.
(The shirt, by Mayfair Group, also has the word "always" in much smaller letters on one cuff.)
Earlier in the morning, Baldwin addressed a crowd of reporters outside her and her husband's Greenwich Village home, wearing the sweatshirt and asking for some actual empathy. She urged reporters to back away from their home for the sake of her children with Alec.
"You being here [when I have to] escort them to school and when they come home — is not good," Baldwin told them, according to the New York Post. "On a human level, you guys know I'm not going to say anything to you. You know that. So please leave my family in peace. And let this all play out. OK?"
Meanwhile, as his wife spoke with reporters out front, Alec Baldwin seized the opportunity to sneak out another door and into a van, the Post said.
Public interest in the Baldwin family has been immense since the firing of a prop gun that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western film "Rust" in October 2021. Prosecutors alleged that Alec Baldwin, a producer and lead actor on the yet-to-be-finished movie, fired the gun in a rehearsal, shooting Hutchins in the chest.
Reactions to the charges throughout Hollywood have been relatively quiet, although some took to social media Thursday to defend Baldwin against the felony charges. One actor called the announcement "the most ridiculous charge ever," with many calling for overall better gun safety on film and television sets and shifting blame instead to the film's weapons handler, Hannah Gutierrez Reed.
Gutierrez Reed has acknowledged unknowingly loading the gun with live rounds and is also expected to be charged in the case.
Hilaria Baldwin, a yoga instructor and entrepreneur who made headlines in 2020 for admitting she was "a white girl" after claiming Spanish ancestry for years, has kept a low profile since the fatal shooting.
A source close to the Baldwin family told People on Friday that the husband and wife "are really leaning on each other and trying to keep their focus on the kids."
"Hilaria has been Alec's rock throughout all of this, and to see him so distraught is heartbreaking for her," the source said, adding that the 39-year-old "is doing whatever she can to support him and they're doing their best to stay strong for the kids."
On Thursday evening, after prosecutors announced their plan to file charges against Baldwin, reporters and photographers swarmed the Baldwins' home as Hilaria escorted her children inside. She wore a different fashion message: a hoodie with "human" on its front.
"So let my kids come home and you stay away from them," she told reporters Friday morning, referring to the previous evening, according to the Post. "Because they ask me, 'Mommy, what are these people doing?' And it's a very hard thing as a mom, to try and explain. So please, go home."
———
