Salma Hayek

In March 2007, Salma Hayek confirmed her engagement to French billionaire François-Henri Pinault and revealed her pregnancy. She gave birth to daughter Valentina Paloma Pinault in September.

She and Pinault announced the end of their engagement in 2008 but later reconciled and married on Valentine’s Day, the next year. They married a second time in Venice.

On December 13, 2017, Salma Hayek came out with an op-ed in the The New York Times, in which she gave details of the harassment and abuse that Harvey Weinstein wrecked on her during the production of the movie 'Frida'.

Salma Hayek was born on September 2, 1966, to Diana Jiménez Medina, an opera singer, and Sami Hayek Dominguez, a well-to-do businessman.

She was raised in a wealthy Roman Catholic family in Mexico. At the age of 12, she went to the US to study in the Academy of the Sacred Heart, Louisiana.

She returned to Mexico to study International Relations at the Universidad Iberoamericana. It was then that she decided to pursue acting seriously.

In 1989, Salma Hayek landed the title role in the Mexican telenovela, ‘Teresa’. It made her a star in Mexico. Following this, she moved to Los Angeles, California, to study acting under Stella Adler.

She starred opposite Antonio Banderas and performed the song ‘Quedate Aquí’ in the 1995 movie, ‘Desperado’. ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ saw her performing a snake dance in her role as a vampire queen.

The following years saw her star opposite Matthew Perry in the romantic comedy, ‘Fools Rush In’ (1997), in Will Smith’s ‘Wild Wild West’ (1999) and in Kevin Smith’s ‘Dogma’ (1999) in a supporting role.

In the 2001 movie, ‘Time of the Butterflies’, based on the eponymous book by Julia Alvarez, she played the role of Minerva, one of the Mirabal sisters.

In 2003, she appeared in ‘Once Upon a Time in Mexico’, wherein she reprised her role from ‘Desperado’. She also recorded ‘Siente mi amor’, which played during the end credits of the movie.

Salma Hayek starred in the 1994 award-winning Mexican movie, ‘El Callejón de los Milagros’ (Miracle Alley). She was nominated for the Ariel Award’for her performance.

In 2000, she founded her own production company, Ventanarosa. ‘El Coronel No TieneQuien Le Escriba’, Mexico’s official entry at the Oscars for Best Foreign Film, was her first movie as a producer.

In 2002, Hayek co-produced, starred in and performed the Mexican folk song ‘La Bruja’ with the band Los Vega for the film, ‘Frida’. Her performance earned her an Academy Award nomination in the Best Actress category.