Hilaria Baldwin has spoken candidly about some of the criticism she has faced since welcoming her and husband Alec Baldwin’s daughter via surrogacy.
Baldwin, who shares seven children with the actor, addressed the many ways in which an individual can become a parent on Monday’s episode of her podcast, Witches Anonymous.
During the conversation, Baldwin said that, while other people have criticised her for welcoming her 20-month-old daughter Lucia via surrogacy in February 2021, she doesn’t view her daughter any differently than her other children, who she gave birth to.
“I don’t have a difference between my daughter that was born via surrogacy and my six other children that I carried,” she said. “There’s no difference. And people assume that I’m less of a mom, that she’s less of my daughter.”
The former yoga instructor went on to recall how she’d read articles about Lucia’s birth in 2021 that had been written by women and were “really mean”. She said these articles made her feel like an “outcasted person” for using surrogacy, despite the fact that people didn’t “know [her] story”.
“It made me so sad - the feeling of judgement,” she said. “And on such innocence. The bond between parent and child is so beautiful. She’s just as attached to me as all the other ones.”
Baldwin also detailed how Lucia would be affected by these articles, if she were to ever see them.
“If she sees one of these reporters who took the time to write about her validity, not just a part of the family but also her validity in terms of existing, they’re questioning whether I should have done that,” she continued. “Which therefore is questioning if she should exist.”
In regards to her surrogate, Baldwin, who revealed in 2019 that she suffered two miscarriages, said that they have an “amazing relationship”.
“We talk almost every single day,” she explained. “And we’re so close, and we went through such amazing transformations together.”
Along with Lucia, Baldwin and her husband share six children, Carmen Gabriela, nine, Rafael Thomas, seven, Leonardo Ángel Charles, six, Romeo Alejandro David, four, Eduardo “Edu” Pao Lucas, two, and Ilaria Catalina Irena, who they welcomed in September. The Boss Baby star also shares 27-year-old daughter, Ireland, with ex Kim Basinger.
This is not Baldwin’s first time sharing her candid thoughts on motherhood. Following the birth of Illaria, she took to Instagram to confess that was feeling “mama guilt”, as she was trying to balance her time between her newborn and six other children.
“Making sure my other babies feel they have a mama too,” she wrote on her Instagram Story in September. “Bringing baby home is magical… and it’s always a transition that we all feel. I am trying to balance [being a] new mum again. With breastfeeding, healing and hustling to make sure all my children feel that I am there to be the best mama I can be.”
