It was love at first sight for Alec and Hilaria Baldwin. Now, 10 years after their first chance encounter, the couple are happily married and have five children together.
Their romance has been forged in the fires of the public spotlight since it began. Alec, had previously been married to Kim Basinger, and had gone through a very contentious divorce that often spilled out into tabloid headlines.
Hilaria, meanwhile, was a yoga instructor and owned a yoga studio in the West Village of New York City, and a routine trip to the vegan restaurant Pure Food and Wine would go on to change the course of her life forever.
Since tying the knot in June 2012, the pair have weathered many storms — from Alec’s run-ins with the law to miscarriage struggles to Hilaria’s recent drama surrounding her heritage — and the pair have emerged stronger as a family. So were taking a look back at the 62-year-old actor and 37-year-old yoga instructor’s romance over the past decade.
It was love at first sight for Alec and Hilaria Baldwin. Now, 10 years after their first chance encounter, the couple are happily married and have five children together.
Their romance has been forged in the fires of the public spotlight since it began. Alec, had previously been married to Kim Basinger, and had gone through a very contentious divorce that often spilled out into tabloid headlines.
Hilaria, meanwhile, was a yoga instructor and owned a yoga studio in the West Village of New York City, and a routine trip to the vegan restaurant Pure Food and Wine would go on to change the course of her life forever.
Since tying the knot in June 2012, the pair have weathered many storms — from Alec’s run-ins with the law to miscarriage struggles to Hilaria’s recent drama surrounding her heritage — and the pair have emerged stronger as a family. So were taking a look back at the 62-year-old actor and 37-year-old yoga instructor’s romance over the past decade.
Love at First Sight
On Feb. 18, 2019, Alec recounted their meet-cute in a heartfelt Instagram post commemorating the anniversary of the first time they met.
“Eight years ago, I wandered into Pure Food and Wine on Irving Place, on an unseasonably warm February evening. 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,” Alec wrote, alongside a photo of the lovebirds sharing a kiss over dinner. “Thanks for all you’ve given me. You are a gift.”
Smooth Talker
Not only was their passing encounter at Pure Food and Wine like something out of a romantic comedy, Alec even brought out a movie-esque pick-up line that Hilaria later recounted in a New York Times profile.
“I was standing near the door with my friends when he walked up and took my hand and said, ‘I must know you,'” Hilaria recalled. She said she found the line to be disarming and the pair began chatting, after which the movie star handed her his business card, with his phone number.
Alec later confirmed her story about his card, telling the publication, “I never ask women for their phone numbers.”
No Kissing, Lots of Handshakes
After the two played phone tag, Hilaria and Alec went on their first real date, and she recalled how, at the end of a lovely night at a theater district restaurant with a group of friends, he shook her hand and “told me he really wanted to get to know me.”
Apparently, this sort of chivalry was par for the course during the early days of their romance. In March 2020, Alec served as a guest host of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where he welcomed his wife as a guest. Hilaria told the audience, “Do you guys know that he shook my hand and didn’t kiss me for six weeks when we first met?”
Hilaria went on to reveal that, while in the early days of their relationship, Alec would tell her “all these things, like, ‘I’m gonna marry you. I’m gonna spend the rest of my life with you. We’re gonna have a ton of kids.'”
“And then he would shake my hand at the end of the night,” she said.
“I didn’t want you to think that I just wanted to have sex with you!” Alec explained.
A Short Engagement
The couple wasted no time in building their life together. Hilaria spoke with Beach magazine in 2013, and revealed how the pair were only dating for five months before they moved in together. “Then we started talking about getting married; then he proposed; then we got married; now we have a kid. So it all went quite fast!” she said at the time.
The pair met in 2011, got engaged in April 2012, and then tied the knot in June 2012.
“I think we knew fairly soon because we built a real relationship very early on,” she said of their whirlwind love affair. “We got to know each other in a way I think most people forgo if they start dating first, then learn about each other after.”
The Lavish Wedding
Three months after announcing their engagement, Alec and Hilaria exchanged vows at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in New York, and held their reception at the NYU Kimmel Center. A-listers in attendance included Alec’s brother, Stephen Baldwin, Tina Fey, Mariska Hargitay, Robert Kennedy Jr., Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels, Woody Allen and more.
The groom wore a suit by Tom Ford, while the bride wore a silk magnolia trumpet Amsale gown, with cap sleeves and a keyhole back neckline, accented with crystal buttons.
