Hilaria Baldwin just revealed the staggering amount of money she made by selling pictures of her babies — and we are both impressed and incredibly saddened.
The former Dancing With the Stars contestant and mom of 7 opened up about the “gross” money she made in an appearance on Nick Viall’s Viall Files podcast. At the time her first daughter, Carmen, was born 12 years ago, the paparazzi were hungry for photos of her baby, who she shares with husband Alec Baldwin.
“I don’t think there’s a right answer but I found that the more I [tried to hide them], the more paparazzi there were,” Hilaria said, per Page Six. “The culture — even though 12 years ago is not a long time — it was very different back then.”
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Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Baldwin at the 35th Annual Gotham Film Awards held at Cipriani Wall Street on December 01, 2025 in New York, New York.
Kristina Bumphrey/WWD
To take the wind out of the paparazzi’s sails, she sold her own pictures to the tabloids. “So I sold the first photos of the first few kids and I donated all the money to charity because it felt like a gross thing anyway,” Hilaria continued. “Our first child was $95,000 and I donated all of that. It felt meaningful.”
She was able to find a helpful use for the money. As she said, “I donated it to an organization in Mallorca, where my family lives, for children who have been sexually abused.”
It might sound weird to sell pictures of your own children — especially for nearly 100k! — but Hilaria wanted to make sure she was in control of where that money went. She said she knew “somebody’s going to make money off of this,” so for her first few children, she did the same thing.
“That was what I did with my first few. It became less of a thing as I had more children and for everybody since the business is changing,” she continued. “I just started sharing them on Instagram. It went from tons of people trying to get this photo to, I put it on there I’m not going to get chased around as much. What I learned from somebody who’s much more famous than me, is the more that you put the photo up, the lower the bounty is and the less harassment you get.”
It makes sense! It must be scary having people chasing you trying to get the photos, so I’m impressed she came up with a solution to turn the tables and use the money for a good cause. It’s just so sad that the world has come to this and celebrity’s babies don’t have any expectation of privacy (Hilary Swank reportedly got into an altercation at the airport recently trying to protect her babies from photographs!).
In a previous interview with SheKnows, Hilaria also talked about protecting her kids from the paparazzi. “I started sharing on Instagram about my children as a defense against paparazzi, because we had a ton [following us], and it was so unpleasant and aggressive,” she told us. “And eventually somebody told me, ‘All you have to do is post about them all the time, and then the bounty for the image goes way down.’ I went from seeing many paparazzi a day to rarely any.”
From there, she liked the community of support she found online. “I found this amazing mom community, and I just learned so much,” she added.
Hilaria shares seven children with Alec ages 12 and under: Carmen, Rafael, Leonardo, Romeo, Eduardo, María, and Ilaria. The 30 Rock star is also dad to daughter Ireland, 30, with ex Kim Basinger.
Before you go, check out these mega-rich celeb kids who have an eye-watering net worth!