Hilaria and Alec Baldwin: from chance meeting to seven children

The pair have spoken openly about their love story and the challenges of parenting

Alec and Hilaria Baldwin are expecting their seventh child together. AP

On Tuesday, Hilaria Baldwin announced that she was expecting her seventh child with actor husband, Alec Baldwin.

The pair described the news as a “huge surprise”, saying “we were pretty sure our family was complete, and we're beyond happy with this surprise.”

The baby is due in the autumn.

Alec and Hilaria Baldwin’s children

The couple’s ever-growing brood consists of daughter Carmen Gabriela, born on August 23, 2013; son Rafael Thomas, born two years later on June 17, 2015; son Leonardo Angel Charles, born on September 12, 2016; Romeo Alejandro David, born on May 17, 2018; Eduardo Pau Lucas, born September 8, 2020; and daughter Maria Lucia Victoria, born on February 25, 2021 via surrogate.

How did the couple meet?

The pair’s romance started like something out of a romantic comedy. Baldwin first spotted Hilaria at a cafe in Manhattan.

“I wandered into Pure Food and Wine on Irving Place, on an unseasonably warm February evening," Baldwin wrote in an anniversary post for Hilaria. "My friend, @bocartist and I sat down (outside!) and as I turned to my left I saw a woman who would change my life. Entirely. 8 years today. Thanks for all you’ve given me. You are a gift."

Talking about the moment they met in an interview with The New York Times, Hilaria said: "I was standing near the door with my friends when he walked up and took my hand and said, ‘I must know you.’

Hilaria on parenting

Hilaria has spoken in the past about how Baldwin, who is 26 years her senior, helps out with their brood.

“Everybody says, 'Oh yeah, sure. I’m going to be with you, and I’m going to change diapers and do all these things,'” she told Mom.Me, "and you always worry that at 2am you’re going to be alone with your child and your husband’s going to be snoring... But no, he’s really great. He wakes up with me every single time that she wakes up. He’s sweet."

She has also spoken about being a stepmother to Ireland, Baldwin's daughter from his first marriage to Kim Basinger. Hilaria has received criticism in the past for not mentioning her stepdaughter in posts where she talks about her children.

"I love my stepdaughter as much as I love my biological children and I become a mommy lioness when I see comments that insinuate otherwise," Hilaria captioned an Instagram picture of her and Ireland in 2019.

"Having a stepchild is a delicate matter. Especially one who is grown. I think my relationship with her has been so successful because I never tried to step in as her mommy. She has a good mother, who I have tremendous respect for... and I put myself in Kim’s shoes: if my children ever had a stepmother, I’d want her to let me be number one.

“Sometimes my language about my biological children does not include her. Because I did not birth her and I never want to disrespect the fact that she has a wonderful mother,” she said. “But this will never take away from how much I love her, need her in my life, and think that she is one of the best things that has ever happened to me."

Baldwin called his and Hilaria's different parenting styles "a generational thing".

"I'm a lot older, and when I grew up there was none of this bargaining and negotiating you do with kids now. Making them understand. My father was like 'Oh, I'll make you understand!' My mother used to hit us with a curtain rod, you know, people used to hit their kids with kitchen utensils," he told Elle Decor. "But Hilaria is the best mommy, she respects them, she honours them."

Breaking her social media silence

Hilaria’s announcement about her impending arrival broke a month-long Instagram silence, after Baldwin was involved in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the Western film Rust in October. Her family is suing him and the movie's other producers, alleging their “callous” disregard in the face of safety complaints on the set led directly to her death.

At least four other lawsuits have been filed over the shooting. Baldwin, who was to star in the film, was pointing a gun at Hutchins inside a small church during set-up for the filming of a scene, when it went off, killing Hutchins and wounding the director, Joel Souza.

Hilaria's post did not mention the death.

She called her pregnancy, “A blessing and a gift during such uncertain times.”

Scroll through the gallery below to see photos of Alec Baldwin on the set of Rust