'I love my stepdaughter as much as I love my biological children.'
Hilaria Baldwin is speaking out about her relationship with her stepdaughter.
On Thursday, Hilaria took to Instagram to speak candidly about her relationship with her husband, Alec Baldwin's, daughter, Ireland. Alec shares the 23-year-old model with his ex-wife, Kim Basinger, whom he was married to from 1993 to 2002. Alec and Hilaria tied the knot in 2012 and have four children together: Romeo, 11 months, Leonardo, 2, Rafael, 3, and Carmen, 5.
In the post, which featured a back-to-back shot of Ireland and Hilaria standing on steps to display their more than one-foot height difference, Hilaria revealed that she "rarely" addresses her life as a stepmom because she "always want[s] to deal with it with such care."
"So often you hear horror stories about evil stepparents and I wanted to make sure I did right by the family I was stepping into when I married Alec," she wrote, before possibly revealing the impetus for her current post.
"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, 35, continued, perhaps pointing to unkind social media comments as the reason for her intense defense.
"Having a stepchild is a delicate matter. Especially one who is grown," Hilaria added. "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."
Hilaria went on to reveal that, prior to meeting Ireland, she told Alec that, if his daughter was not on board with their relationship, they would have to end things.
"Family is first and she needed to be ok with me," she wrote. "We have never had a fight or a bad moment. Nor have I with her mother. Ireland and I love each other and she knows that I am here for her...and I know that she is here for me. I am inspired by her, look up to her (not just height wise ?)...she gave her father away at our wedding, is the best big sister anyone could ask for...and I give her space. I don’t ever expect her to be anyone other than herself."
The yoga instructor said that she did not want "to step in and take over... but rather respect what had been for the first 15 years of her life and then become a part of that, in a way that works for everyone."
Hilaria wrapped up her lengthy note by revealing why she often says she has four children, instead of including Ireland in that tally and saying that she's a mom of five.
"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," Hilaria explained. "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."
She also urged her fans not to "look for trouble where there is none."
The sweet post comes just over a week after Hilaria revealed that she miscarried her fifth child. Hilaria's sad news followed her initial social media post, where she shared that she was "most likely" experiencing a miscarriage. She later opened up on Today about why she decided to discuss her potential miscarriage as it was happening, rather than wait until after the fact.
"I wanted to come out and speak about it because it’s something so many people deal with and, as women, we're trained to deal with it silently," she said. "You're definitely not supposed to say anything before 12 weeks. And some of that is because people are superstitious or that's how they feel that they're going to be stronger and a lot of it for other people is fear. And I don’t think we have to live with such fear."
"I have four children. I get to go home and hug them," she continued. "There are plenty of stories on my Instagram, that's not other people's stories. And those people, for me, are so strong. People were telling me they had 11 miscarriages and no children and they are still there. They're still showing up. They're bringing love onto my Instagram. I mean, that is so inspiring. I have so much respect for them."
Watch the video below for more on the Baldwin family.
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