Alec Baldwin sparks criticism for ‘sexually suggestive’ joke about wife and son in Instagram photo

Even fans of Alec Baldwin are begging the actor to stay off social media for a while, after critics accused him of making a “sexually suggestive” joke about a photo of his wife, Hilaria, and their 6-year-old son giving her a back rub.

In Baldwin’s first Instagram post since prosecutors announced plans to charge him with involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, the ever outspoken, controversy-prone actor sparked yet another controversy — this time by posting a photo of Hilaria and their oldest son Leo and captioning it, “The old ‘let me give you a back rub’ ploy.”

Alec Baldwin defends ‘sexually suggestive’ photo caption of Hilaria and son Leo https://t.co/jBlghOWDOj pic.twitter.com/fRmGJqrdVb

— New York Post (@nypost) January 23, 2023

Baldwin’s Instagram feed was filled with people questioning his notion of humor, saying that the “giving you a back rub ploy” usually refers to an adult trying to entice another into sex. “That’s a pretty (expletive) weird comment to make on a photo of your son and his mother,” one user wrote. Another said, “SexuaIizing children is always so weird but your own child? Yikes.”

“Imagine being indicted for involuntary manslaughter and the first post you make after the announcement includes a picture of your attention-seeking wife, posed with your young son, and captioned with a sexually suggestive innuendo,” said another.

Baldwin’s defenders said people’s minds have gone to “weird, dark places” if they see something inappropriate in a “benign” photo of a loving moment between a mother and son.

But even those sympathetic to Baldwin’s claims of innocence in Hutchins’ death said his latest Instagram brouhaha shows why he should stay off social media for a while, with the pending prosecution in New Mexico. “Stop everything until this case is done,” the person said. “Don’t be problematic and post stuff like it’s all good. For the kids sake … lay low. It’ll be over soon enough.”

The “30 Rock” actor appeared to be flummoxed by the criticism and initially tried to make light of it, editing the text to say, “Potato chips to follow.” But he then seemed to grow angry and responded, “I adjusted the text. I guess because…you know…there is so much of that Reddit trash out there.”

Baldwin seemed to be referring to critics on Reddit who regularly call him and his Boston-born influencer wife out for the way she used a fake Spanish accent in interviews and on social media for more than 10 years to pass herself off as a glamorous Spanish immigrant. The Reddit critics also have accused her for violating her seven children’s privacy by constantly posting photos of them on Instagram, often in private moments, and some have spun conspiracy theories about how she was never pregnant with some of their children — that they were born to surrogates.

Unfortunately for Alec and Hilaria Baldwin, Hilaria Baldwin on Friday only revived people’s interest in her Spanish heritage scandal and in her alleged violation of their children’s privacy by appearing outside the couple’s Manhattan apartment. While she begged reporters gathered there to leave her and her family alone, she did so while holding their youngest child, an infant daughter, and by speaking in a Spanish accent. 

Some of the more than 1,400 people comments on Baldwin’s Instagram post pressed him on why his wife continues to use her Spanish accent.

“I am with you and your family on this circumstance,” one person said. “I hope you are cleared and peace returns to you and your family. Still your wife needs to stop misappropriating other cultures. She isn’t a Spaniard, Latina or Hispanic. Please understand it is offensive. I don’t see how it is hard to grasp.”

As with this commenter, many used Baldwin’s post as an opportunity to debate whether prosecutors in New Mexico were being overly aggressive in charging the actor with involuntary manslaughter.

Hutchins was killed in October 2021 on the set of the Western “Rust.” Baldwin, the star and a producer on the film, was handling a gun during a rehearsal that inadvertently held a live round. The gun fired and Hutchins, the mother of a 9-year-old son, was killed.