When Hilaria Baldwin debuts on Season 34 of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” on Sept. 16, will she become the show’s most controversial, polarizing contestant yet?
The attention-seeking Boston-born influencer wife of Alec Baldwin, who bizarrely spent a decade trying to pass herself off as being from Spain, certainly has some stiff competition in this category.
Over the past 20 years, the dance competition show has spotlighted celebrities, sports stars and even political figures who have been mired in various controversies and other questionable behavior before they ended up on the show. Some have even been accused or convicted of crimes.
According to US Weekly, the list of scandalous “Dancing With the Stars” contestants includes: convicted domestic abuser Floyd Mayweather; disgraced former House majority leader Tom DeLay; TV chef and alleged racist Paula Deen; Rio Olympics robbery hoaxer Ryan Locate; Big Cat Rescue CEO Carole Baskin; college admissions scandal figurehead Olivia Jade Giannulli; and first-term Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer. The inclusion of Spicer in the Season 28 cast in 2019 led to expressions of outrage from fans, as well as from then-host Tom Bergeron, who quit the show soon after.
Last year, con artist and fraudster Anna Delvey appeared on the show while under house arrest, following her 2019 conviction for grand larceny, theft and other charges. Delvey wore an ankle monitor for the brief time she performed on the show before she was one of the first two celebrities eliminated.
It’s not likely that Hilaria Baldwin will be eliminated too quickly, given that she has ballroom dance experience from being on the dance team at New York University a couple decades ago. Hilaria Baldwin also looks pretty comfortable wearing glitzy and skimpy ballroom dance attire; she posed in a sequined and feathered pink bodysuit for a promotional photo, alongside her professional partner Gleb Savchenko.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 14: (L-R) Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Baldwin attend SNL50: The Homecoming Concert at Radio City Music Hall on February 14, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
Hilaria Baldwin told USA Today that she’ll bring her entire family with her to Los Angeles for the “Dancing With the Stars” taping. That means Alec Baldwin, her veteran film and TV star husband, and their famous brood of seven children.
“I’m bringing everybody,” Baldwin told USA Today. “We just decided to do something crazy and that we’d all go to L.A.” USA Today noted that the Baldwin family may have some free time because their critically maligned TLC reality TV series, “The Baldwins,” was not renewed for a second season.
During the upcoming season, “Dancing With the Stars” may touch on Hilaria Baldwin’s backstory, but it will probably airbrush out the most problematic parts. The show describes her as “an author and wellness influencer” — not as an “identity hoaxer,” as she was once described by The Atlantic in a report that also included Rachel Dolezal and Jessica Krug.
Born Hillary Lynn Hayward-Thomas, she started using the name Hilaria at some point when she became a yoga teacher in New York City. That was her job when she met and married Alec Baldwin in 2012, after which she began having babies with the “30 Rock” star and tried to transform herself into a lifestyle guru and mom podcaster.
To apparently stand out as an emerging media personality, Hilaria Baldwin spoke in a quirky Spanish accent and often boasted about her faux Spanish background. But the Spanish “grift” ended in late 2020 when people online uncovered the fact that she actually grew up in Massachusetts and came from a family with strong roots in New England and the Midwest.
Hilaria Baldwin speaks to her husband US actor Alec Baldwin during his trial for involuntary manslaughter at Santa Fe County District Court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on July 12, 2024. In October 2021, on the New Mexico set of the Western movie “Rust,” a gun pointed by Baldwin discharged a live round, killing the film’s cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding its director. (Photo by RAMSAY DE GIVE / POOL / AFP) (Photo by RAMSAY DE GIVE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Amid her disgrace, Hilaria Baldwin somewhat retreated from social media and from constantly posting images of her seven children, which critics found exploitative. But she soon found a new role to play in the media — as the strong, supportive spouse of Alec Baldwin after he was embroiled in the tragic fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust,” a Western he was making in New Mexico in 2021.
“The Baldwins” TLC show followed the couple as they tried to navigate that tragedy, along with Alec Baldwin’s prosecution on involuntary manslaughter charges, while also trying to manage the chaos of rearing seven young children. After a judge threw out the case against Baldwin last summer, citing prosecutorial misconduct, Hilaria Baldwin has appeared eager to kick her influencer career back into high gear. No doubt, “The Baldwins,” followed by “Dancing With the Stars,” is a big part of that career revival. In recent weeks, she has teased the possibility of being on the show by posting videos of herself doing dance routines, often co-starring a goofy-looking Baldwin.
Hilaria Baldwin’s competition for the Mirror Ball Trophy includes social media star Alix Earle, “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star Jen Affleck, Olympic gold medalist Jordan Chiles, NBA All-Star Baron Davis, “The Parent Trap actress Elaine Hendrix, actor Corey Feldman, Fifth Harmony singer Lauren Jauregui and comedian Andy Richter.