Hilaria Baldwin's Former Dance Partner Reacts to Her Changing Her Name From 'Hillary'

Hilaria Baldwin was born Hillary Hayward-Thomas and used to dance competitively under her birth name. If you don’t know, there has been a ton of controversy this week about her heritage after it was discovered she was actually born in Boston, Massachusetts, not Spain.

Now, her former competitive dance partner, Alexander Rechits, is speaking out.

“The whole ‘Hilaria’ thing is hilarious to me,” Alexander told the New York Times. They competed together from 2006 until 2009. Alexander said he knew her as “Hillary Hayward-Thomas.” They competed together in events like the New York Dance Festival and the M.I.T. Open.

“I understand why she did it,” he continued. “It was always her desire to be considered Spanish. She had roots in Spain, her brother lived there, she visited there a lot. But Hillary is a very good strong name, so why would you change that when you were born here and you weren’t born in Spain?”

“I have a lot of nicknames in Russian,” he added. He is originally from Belarus. “But I’m still Alexander everywhere I go.”

If you missed it, Hilaria spoke out and answered a lot of questions today in a tell-all interview including why her accent seems to come and go and why her kids are named very Spanish-influenced names.