Hilaria Baldwin is sharing why she thinks she received such tough criticism during her time competing on Dancing with the Stars.
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Speaking with Us Weekly in New York City on Oct. 23, the 42-year-old influencer said she “became the villain” because of her ballroom dance background.
“Not that it was a secret. They knew that going [in]. But people have very strong feelings about dancers who go there,” she told the outlet.
Baldwin, wife of actor Alec Baldwin, was on a ballroom dance team while she was a student at New York University.
“One of the hard things — especially people who come from the ballroom world, which I came from — was the drama,” she said of the show.
Baldwin competed on season 34 of the show in 2025. She was paired with pro dancer Gleb Savchenko.
“We’re raised having this stuff drilled into us by the top dance teachers in the world,” she said. “Sometimes people forget this is all about the celebrity’s journey, but these pros that are on there are some of the best dancers that have ever existed.”
She went on to gush over pro Val Chmerkovskiy, who she’s known “since we’re teenagers.”
“Val is a savant,” she said. “Val’s an amazing dancer. Maks Chmerkovskiy and Gleb too. Gleb is an amazing dancer. They know what they’re doing.”
Baldwin also talked about the role social media plays in the show’s success.
“They are one of the shows that’s been able to make social media make people watch a show in a time when it’s hard to have people watch TV,” she said.
“Everybody again has to realize these are humans,” she added. “The celeb and the dancers and the people that are cleaning the floor in between. All the people who are doing the sets and the costumes and everything, it’s a whole operation. We just can’t dehumanize it and some of it gets to be a little bit of that.”