A “nepo baby” is a term used to describe the child of famous parents, and New York Magazine ran a cover story about the the phrase last year. The term is often applied to Hailey, as she is the daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin.
Hailey is also married to Justin Bieber.
All of which is to say, it was notable in January when she wore a shirt self-identifying as a “nepo baby.”
The shirt attracted the attention of many, including Gwyneth Paltrow. Gwyneth’s response was particularly notable, as she is the daughter of film producer/director Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner.
Now, months later, Hailey is addressing why she wore the notable shirt in the first place.
“The nepo baby T-shirt was just meant to be my little comment on the whole discourse that had been going around. And, you know, my point to having worn the T-shirt was not to poke fun at it or be like, ‘Yeah, I’m a nepo baby’ and ha ha type of thing,” she told Bloomberg in a on-camera interview published on Thursday.
“It was more so to be like this is what everyone is saying, and I want you to know this is my way of responding to it and my way of acknowledging it — in a way that is so overly literal that it’s like, ‘I’m just going to call myself a nepo baby because I am one and I embrace that I am,'” she continued.
Hailey went on to note that she found wearing the shirt funny because she got a mixed reaction.
“I’m like, ‘So you’re going to sit there and call me a nepo baby all day long but then I acknowledge it and then I’m not enough of a nepo baby?’ So, it’s like, there is never any winning with the internet. And that’s what I’ve always time and time again realized,” she continued.