Salma Hayek: Early Life, Career, Marriage, Net Worth

Actress and producer Salma Hayek Pinault are of Mexican and American descent. In Mexico, she made her acting debut in the telenovela Teresa (1989–1991) and the romantic drama El Callejón de Los Milagros (1995), for which she was nominated for an Ariel Award. With roles in movies like Desperado (1995), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Wild Wild West (1999), and Dogma, she quickly made a name for herself in Hollywood (1999).

salma Hayek

Early Life

Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez, better known by her stage name Salma Hayek, was born on September 2, 1966, in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico. She later changed her name to Salma Hayek Pinault. Sami Hayek Dominguez, her father, runs an industrial equipment company and works as an executive for a Mexican oil company. In addition, he once ran for mayor of Coatzacoalcos, a political position. He is Mexican-Lebanese. Opera singer and talent scout Diana Jiménez Medina is her mother. She has Spanish ancestry.

Salma Hayek and her younger brother Sami were raised in a prosperous and devoted Roman Catholic home. Her parents enrolled her in the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, when she was 12 years old. Later, she pursued a course of study in international affairs at the Universidad Iberoamericana.

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Salma Hayek was chosen to play the title role in the Mexican telenovela “Teresa” when she was 23 years old. She rose to fame and gained widespread recognition in Mexico as a result of the telenovela. With a lead role in the movie “El Callejón de Los Milagros (Miracle Alley),” she maintained her reputation (1994). It has received the most accolades in Mexican film history, and Hayek was nominated for an Ariel Award.

Career

Salma Hayek came to Los Angeles, California, in 1991 to pursue her acting studies. Stella Adler, a renowned acting coach, served as her instructor. Hayek had dyslexia at the time and had a weak command of the English language. Her perseverance paid off, as Robert Rodriguez cast her in the lead role of “Desperado” with Antonio Banderas in 1995.

Salma Hayek won a modest role as a vampire queen in “From Dusk to Dawn” (1996), which marked the start of her career in the United States. Although she only had a small part, the sexy table-top snake dance she performed made her performance stand out even though it was brief. Then, in 1997, she co-starred alongside Will Smith in the movie “Wild Wild West” and Matthew Perry in the romantic comedy “Fools Rush In” (1999).

salma Hayek

The Time of the Butterflies (2001), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003, 2010), Grown Ups (2010), and Grown Ups 2 are some of the other movies in which Hayek has acted (2013). In the animated movie “Puss in Boots” (2011), she co-voiced Kitty Softpaws with Antonio Banderas.

Around the year 2000, Hayek started her own independent film production company, Ventanarosa. After talks with MGM, she was appointed CEO of the business in April 2007. In May of that same year, she negotiated a two-year contract with ABC under which Ventanarosa would produce shows for the network. “El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba” was the first movie she worked on producing (1999).

Salma Hayek then went on to create additional projects, including the NBC television series “Ugly Betty,” which aired from 2006 to 2010, the Showtime feature “The Maldonado Miracle,” which she also directed, and the movie “Frida,” which she co-produced and also appeared in. She has also produced music videos for stars like Jada Pinkett Smith and Prince.

Salma Hayek earned a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing in a Children, Youth, or Family Special for “The Maldonado Miracle” and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in the movie “Frida.”

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Marriage to Francois Henri-Pinault

Salma Hayek wed French billionaire Francois Henri-Pinault, who has a $7 billion net worth, in 2009. Valentina Paloma Pinault is their daughter, whom they had together. Kering, a manufacturer of luxury goods, is owned by the Pinault family. The parent business of brands like Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Puma, Volcom, Brioni, and more is called Kering.

Although his father, the company’s founder, is still the largest individual shareholder and has a net worth of $14 billion, Francois has been the company’s CEO since 2005. The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, which sustained severe fire damage on April 15, 2019, received a $113 million donation from the Pinault family in 2019.

Charity Work and Activism

Salma Hayek has made a significant effort to stop violence toward women. She spoke in favor of renewing the Violence Against Women Act before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary in July 2005. Then, in February 2006, she gave $50,000 to organizations against domestic abuse in Monterrey, Mexico, and $25,000 to a refuge for battered women in her birthplace of Coatzacoalcos, Mexico. In order to promote a message of female empowerment, Hayak collaborated with Beyoncé and Frida Giannini on the Gucci campaign “Chime for Change” in 2013. Hayek received a nomination for the 2010 VH1 Do Something Awards because of her charitable activity.

Endorsements

In 1998, Salma Hayek worked as a spokesperson for Revlon, and since February 2004, she has worked as a spokesperson for Avon cosmetics. She appeared in Spanish-language Lincoln vehicle commercials in 2002, Chopard advertisements in 2001, and Campari advertisements in 2006, all of which were captured by Mario Testino. On April 3, 2009, she participated in the launch of La Doa, a Cartier timepiece that was inspired by Mara Félix, a fellow Mexican actress.

In order to encourage the funding of immunizations against maternal and neonatal tetanus through the sale of disposable diapers, Salma Hayek has collaborated with UNICEF and the Procter & Gamble Company. She serves as a global spokeswoman for the Pampers/UNICEF partnership to promote the initiative. For each pack of Pampers purchased, Procter & Gamble will donate the equivalent of one tetanus shot or roughly 24 cents.

Salma Hayek co-founded the juice delivery service Cooler Cleanse in 2008 under Juice Generation. In 2017, she and Helms launched Blend It Yourself, a beauty subscription delivery service based on Hayek’s personal beauty elixirs, which provides subscribers with the prepared organic frozen smoothie and acai bowl ingredients. She had previously written the foreword to Eric Helms’ 2014 book The Juice Generation: 100 Recipes for Fresh Juices and Superfood Smoothies.

Nuance by Salma Hayek, Hayek’s own collection of cosmetics, skincare, and hair care items, was introduced in 2011 and is now available at CVS locations across North America.

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Salma Hayek Net Worth

Actress Salma Hayek, who was born in Mexico, has a $200 million fortune. Although it should be remembered that Salma has been wed to Francois Henri Pinault, one of the richest persons in the world, since 2009. Francois has a current net worth of $7 billion while his father is estimated to be worth over $30 billion. Salma’s part of common property and any future assistance would significantly boost her net worth if they ever got divorced.

Who is François-Henry Pinault?

On May 28, 1962, François-Henry Pinault was born in Rennes, France. With a bank loan, François-father Henry’s launched a lumber business the year after he was born. When François-Henry was 16 years old, the company was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange and continued to grow steadily, eventually becoming Pinault S.A. The business started concentrating more on retail in the 1990s and bought some of the largest names in the fashion industry, evolving into PPR and then Kering. The Artemis Group was founded at this time by the senior Pinault.

salma Hayek

François-Henri studied at the HEC School of Management throughout all of this, eventually earning his degree in 1985. Pinault established the CRM firm Soft Computing while still a student. He also worked as a software developer while doing an internship at Hewlett-Packard in Paris. After finishing his undergraduate studies, François served his mandatory military obligation at the French Consulate in Los Angeles before traveling to the United States to study the fashion and technology industries.

When the younger Pinault was prepared to start working, a position at PPR was available. He received more promotions over the years as a result of his rapid elevation to the manager of the buying department. He assumed leadership of Pinault Distribution in 1990. Pinault held the position of CEO for businesses including CFAO and Fnac in the middle to late 1990s. His father appointed him president of Groupe Artemis in 2003.

When François-Henri was appointed CEO and President of PPR, this resulted in an even bigger move ahead. As the new CEO of the business, Pinault managed its transformation into a global powerhouse in the fashion industry and gave it the new name Kering. The business later purchased labels from Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Boucheron, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Girard-Perregaux, JeanRichard, Qeelin, Pomellato, Dodo, and Ulysse Nardin, among others.

During this time, Pinault also started a women’s rights organization and put more of an emphasis on sustainability. Sales at PPR fell by more than 50%, but profits increased by 40% at the same time. Revenues increased by 27% in 2018 to 15.5 billion euros. By 2018, Pinault oversaw the sale of businesses like Puma and Volcom and the total abandoning of all business endeavors unrelated to luxury.

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Kering adopted various unconventional tactics under Pinault’s direction. Gucci’s sales tripled over the following five years after he named an accessories designer as the brand’s new creative director. Then, in a similarly surprising decision, he named Demna Gvasalia, a designer of Georgian descent, as the new creative director of Balenciaga.

Under François-leadership, Henry’s Kering has also been quite engaged in the eyeglasses sector. The business introduced Kering Eyewear in 2014. This business teamed up with Richemont in 2017 to create eyewear for Cartier, Alaia, and Montblanc. In the end, this resulted in the construction of an Italian logistics facility measuring 15,000 square meters and capable of producing 5 million pairs of sunglasses annually. A 100 percent share in the Danish premium eyewear company Lindberg was purchased by Kering in 2021.

2012 saw approximately $10 billion in revenue and a $1 billion profit for Kering. Kering reported revenues of $13.1 billion in 2020, a decrease of nearly 18% from the year before.

It was reported in 2020 that Pinault and Hayek had left their Bel-Air estate. This was reportedly due to the fact that the house was slated for demolition in accordance with the plans filed by the local authorities. The couple reportedly thought their 8,000-square-foot home was too small, so they submitted plans to tear it down and build a brand new 17,500-square-foot home in its stead. The couple moved out in anticipation of the impending demolition after the plans were apparently authorized.

This home was first purchased by Salma and François in 2007 for $13.5 million from Kelsey and Camille Grammer. The house is situated on a little less than an acre of land.

As one might anticipate from a billionaire, Pinault reportedly owns an astounding number of residences dispersed over the world. According to reports, these homes can be found in London, Paris, and several rural areas of France. Of course, Hayek also has her own homes in the US, which further diversifies the couple’s real estate holdings.

 

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