Salma Hayek Pinault (née Hayek Jiménez) is a Mexican-American film actress, producer, and former model. She attained fame in Mexico starring in a local telenovela Teresa. In 1991, she moved from Mexico to Los Angeles so as to explore her talents and passion.
Starring in the 1995 classic Desperado opposite Antonio Banderas announced Hayek in Hollywood. Her dazzling performance in the movie earned Hayek several other roles and her Hollywood career took off in earnest.
Salma Hayek Biography
Salma Hayek Jiménez was born in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico to an Opera Singer/talent scout mother, Diana Jiménez Medina and her husband, Sami Hayek Domínguez who is a successful oil company executive and equally runs an industrial-equipment firm. Hayek’s father once ran for mayor of their home city, Coatzacoalcos.
Salma Hayek describes herself as 50% Lebanese and 50% Spanish. Her mother is of Spanish descent while her Mexican father was originally from Lebanon. Hayek visited her father’s home city of Baabdat, Lebanon in 2015 to promote her movie Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet.
Her younger brother, Sami works as a furniture designer. Hayek admits she and her brother were spoilt rotten by their buoyant businessman dad. Theirs was also a devout roman catholic family. However, Hayek says she no longer believes in the church institution but she still believes in God.
At the age of twelve, the young Hayek was sent to the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, USA where she was diagnosed with dyslexia. She studied International Relations at the Universidad Iberoamericana in the capital city of her home country.
Acting Career
At the age of 23, Hayek landed the title role in the 1989 telenovela Teresa. The popular telenovela made her a star in Mexico. Hayek moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1991 in order to further her talents. However, fans of Teresa were heartbroken by the fact that their beloved lead actress was leaving.
Hayek rose to prominence with roles in films such as 1995 classic Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn (1996), Dogma (1999), and Will Smith’s big-budget Wild Wild West (1999).
She soon floated her own production company which she named Ventanarosa. The company started out quite well and responsible for the Mexican feature film titled No One Writes to the Colonel (1999). The movie received positive reviews and was shown at the Cannes Film Festival and selected as Mexico’s official Oscar entry for Best Foreign Film.
Her breakthrough role was in the 2002 artist biopic Frida which she also co-produced. Starring as iconic Mexican painter “Frida Kahlo” in the movie earned Hayek a Best Actress nomination at the Oscars, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, and Golden Globe Awards. Frida went on to win two Academy Awards — for score and makeup — from six nominations.
The Mexican-born actress cemented her status as Hollywood royalty in the 2002 biopic of legendary Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Frida wasn’t just another movie for Hayek, it was her dream role and thus she put in so much passion and enthusiasm in making the movie. All that hard work paid off as Frida was nominated for six Oscars, including best actress for Hayek.
Net Worth
Being married to a billionaire didn’t slow Salma Hayek down in her movie career. Her billionaire husband is worth a lot of money but Hayek has also amassed some fortune on her own.
Her net worth estimated to be around $85 million. The highest-grossing project that Hayek has been a part of is 2010 comedy Grown-Ups, which raked in $165 million.
Sexual Assault
She recently joined the league of high-profile actresses who accused embattled Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment. According to the actress, Weinstein tried to sabotage her 2002 Oscar-winning movie Frida, because she had repeatedly turned down his advances. Hayek admitted that Weinstein went as far as threatening to break her kneecaps!
She also revealed that she had earlier been approached by various reporters to speak about that unfortunate encounter, but she was too ashamed and didn’t want her daughter to know of it. Let us hope that voicing out her ordeal will help Hayek deal with that dark episode of her life. Harvey Weinstein has, however, continued to deny all the allegations of non-consensual sexual activity.
Salma Hayek’s Husband
Salma Hayek is married to French billionaire François-Henri Pinault, a French businessman, chairman and CEO of luxury goods conglomerate, Kering SA since 2005. The couple announced their engagement in March 2007 and got married on Valentine’s day, 2009 in Paris. They had a second ceremony in Venice.
Hayek’s husband was named in a high-profile child support battle with his ex-girlfriend, supermodel Linda Evangelista in which it was alleged that he is the father of the supermodel’s son, Augustin James. The boy was born in 2006, a year before Pinault even got engaged to his wife. Pinault denied all the allegations and had an out-of-court settlement with Evangelista.
Daughter
Hayek announced she was expecting a daughter on 9 March 2007, the same day she announced her engagement. She welcomed daughter Valentina Paloma Pinault on September 2, 2007, with François-Henri Pinault who was her fiance at that time. Her daughter was delivered at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.
Hayek’s Feet and Body Measurements
Great gifts they say come in small packages. Salma Hayek is surely one of such gifts. Her confidence transcends the screen and is almost palpable. However, this highly talented actress and producer stand at a height of 5ft 2 inches. She also has an hourglass figure which beautifully complements her petite frame.
Her body measurements are 39 inches bust, 24 inches waist and 36 inches hips. If that doesn’t scream “bombshell” then what will? As the confident woman she is, Hayek has never been afraid to flaunt her assets.
Salma Hayek’s feet/shoe size is 6.5 (US). She weighs about 123 lbs.
