Hilaria Baldwin and Alec Baldwin’s kids saw their mom leave it all on the dance floor.
While Hilaria was eliminated from Dancing With the Stars alongside pro partner Gleb Savchenko Oct. 7, her and Alec’s kids Carmen, 12, Rafael, 10, Leonardo, 9, Romeo, 7, Eduardo, 5, María, 4, and Ilaria, 2, had a front row seat in seeing their mom temporarily return to her passion.
“My family was so supportive,” Hilaria told E! News in an exclusive interview Oct. 20. “They were so excited. My kids were there every single week.”
But while the 41-year-old emphasized that her and Alec’s kids—who are usually based in New York—craved the “adventure” of a temporary move to Los Angeles, it also wasn’t effortless. After all, the mom of seven was training for several hours a day, up to six times a week.
“They really rallied, but they missed me being around as much as I am because it’s a very long schedule,” Hilaria explained. “As much as my kids were really supportive, seeing them miss me was really painful and coming back and being so tired.”
Still, it was a wonderful thing for the former yoga instructor to see her family persevere through not only her busy schedule, but also the criticism she received from Dancing With the Stars fans as she competed alongside Robert Irwin, Dylan Efron, Danielle Fishel and more.
“When it comes to the more negative aspects of it, my kids learn that you be yourself, you continue on, you hear the negative noise and you continue on,” she emphasized. “And yes, maybe that can trip you, maybe you’re gonna fall, but you get back up again.”
Hilaria, for her part, believes she did just that as she tuned out the negative noise.
“I learned to reconnect with something that was very important to me a long time ago,” she said of her four weeks on the ABC reality series. “I just love to dance and I wanted to have fun.”
Indeed, Hilaria was relieved that her pro Gleb felt the same way. As she put it, “The philosophy of movement and dance and the technicality—both of us were just really interested in dancing.”
For more on the stars who hit the DWTS dance floor this year, keep reading…
Baron Davis
Partnered with Britt Stewart
Jennifer Affleck
Partnered with Jan Ravnik
Alix Earle
Partnered with Valentin Chmerkovski
Dylan Efron
Partnered with Daniella Karagach
Corey Feldman
Partnered with Jenna Johnson
Elaine Hendrix
Partnered with Alan Bersten
Robert Irwin
Partnered with Witney Carson
Jordan Chiles
Partnered with Ezra Sosa
Scott Hoying
Partnered with Rylee Arnold
Whitney Leavitt
Partnered with Mark Ballas
Hilaria Baldwin
Partnered with Gleb Savchenko
Andy Richter
Partnered with Emma Slater
Danielle Fishel
Partnered with Pasha Pashkov