Hilaria Baldwin debated on responding to the fuss over a recent lingerie photo she shared to Instagram — but, her message about body inclusivity was too important not to share. The health expert, 36, felt the urge to speak out after comedian Amy Schumer reposted the photo of Hilaria holding her 3-month-old son Eduardo as a joke. Amy, who’s since apologized and deleted her post, captioned it with: “Gene [Amy’s son] and I wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday season. Enjoy it with whatever family members are talking to you this year.” Amy’s post, Hilaria implied in her response, was what caused critics to give her lingerie-clad photo more attention than expected.
“After many people reached out to me, I decided to respond to the whole photo with Edu being made into a joke thing,” Hilaria wrote in the caption of her video. “Love a good joke-don’t think this should have been such a big deal. I’m still 50/50 on whether I should respond, butas we see, I decided to. I’m an advocate for body positivity and inclusivity…which, let’s all remember, includes everyone,” she explained.
“I’ve posted a million photos like that in the past, so I didn’t really think that it was going to be that big of a deal,” Hilaria said in the clip, adding, “[It] ended up being a big deal.” She went on to admit that while she “loves jokes,” she didn’t “understand” Amy’s. After admitting that she enjoys “when people make fun of me…,” the craze surrounding her photo “seemed to start to spiral out of control.”
Hilaria continued, “We’re getting into a place of body-shaming. Now, does it hurt my feelings if some people out there, who I don’t even know, are critiquing why I might post a photo? And if I had looked differently, would I have posted that photo? I sure hope so… Because I love looking at photos, supporting our bodies, our temple that we live in 24/7. I love it. It doesn’t matter what you look like. I love it. If you’re honoring yourself and celebrating yourself, I love it.”
However, Hilaria doesn’t love when attacking someone’s body comes into play. “The problem is that sometimes we put down people’s shapes,” she said. “Now, that might be that you think the person is too thin; that might be that you think the person is too big, the person is too this, too that. But if you’re doing body-inclusivity, that’s body-inclusivity for all,” she urged, explaining, “There’s that whole thing where, ‘Oh, moms don’t look like that!’ Some moms do. This mom does, and I am included in the inclusivity.”
Hilaria then spoke about her own body and love for fitness, despite breaking her ankle five weeks prior. “I try my very best to fit [exercise] in because it makes me feel good… This is what I look like, I come from smaller people, I’ve been a fitness person my entire life and there you go, period, end of story. There’s no need that I need to apologize for that, just as there’s no need for anyone else to apologize for what they look like and their life story,” she said. Hilaria concluded with a call to action to “just be a little bit kinder because everybody is suffering mentally” after the “negativity” 2020 has brought with COVID-19 pandemic.
She also noted that while “I’ve gotten to a place where I don’t let [negative comments] affect me too much,” the same can’t be said for others. “If you make those comments, it does affect them. There’s other people who read those comments and see the way that you’re treating me and then they keep that for themselves, and that hurts their feelings,” she said.
Following Hilaria’s response, Amy commented on the video with an apology: “I’m sorry!,” she wrote. Hilaria then responded to the comedian, letting her know that she only spoke out because of how the public escalated the situation.
“Girl, don’t even apologize! You always make me laugh,” the mother of five wrote, explaining, “My only intentions were to address some of the the not so namaste behavior some people went running wild with after. You don’t need to take responsibility for their actions. Much love and light xoxo”. Hilaria shares five children with husband Alec Baldwin: Carmen, 7, Rafael, 5, Leonardo, 4, Romeo, 2, and of course, baby “Edu,” who the couple welcomed in September.