Salma Hayek Married a Billionaire, But Handles Her Own Expenses

Salma Hayek can’t say enough about her husband, Francois Pinault. In 2013, Forbes reported that Pinault and his family had a net worth of $15 billion. But that is not what Hayek is so crazy abou...
Salma Hayek Married a Billionaire, But Handles Her Own Expenses
Written by Mike Tuttle
  • Salma Hayek can’t say enough about her husband, Francois Pinault. In 2013, Forbes reported that Pinault and his family had a net worth of $15 billion. But that is not what Hayek is so crazy about. In fact, she distances herself from that in some ways.

    “I have a system in my life that I’ve chosen,” Salma Hayek told Allure, “where my expenses from before the marriage are my expenses.”

    This includes properties she bought and charitable endeavors she launched.

    “Maybe that’s also part of what works right in my marriage. I still have my independence. But he likes it. I have my problems, and I don’t have to dump them on him. I take care of them on my own. And I get a lot of respect from him. Always take care of yourself.”

    If it is not the money that draws Salma Hayek, then what is it? Hayek draws a comparison between her marriage now and the relationships she had in the past.

    “I wish I knew when I was younger that I was going to fall crazy in love with the perfect man,” Hayek says. “I was so worried, and I dated some people I shouldn’t have dated. You get desperate, and you start seeing wonderful things in, like, the wrong guys. I also found some pretty good guys. But I wish I could say to myself, ‘Hey, chill out. You’re going to get a great husband that’s going to adore you.’ I would have saved myself a lot of personal drama.”

    Her connection to Pinault, the father of her daughter, is palpable.

    “I always miss him when we’re not together. It’s sort of nice to miss each other a little bit.”

    When her daughter was born, Salma Hayek thought about quitting acting. It was Pinault who made her get back up and get back to work.

    “I said, ‘I don’t think I want to work anymore.’ And it was François who said, ‘Oh no, you’re going back to work.’ And I said, ‘I don’t want to.’ ‘Well you have to. We are not putting up with some lazy girl in the house. That’s not who I married.'”

    It’s not that Pinault was a slave driver. In fact, his reasoning was very sweet.

    “And then,” Hayek explains, “he said something so beautiful, ‘I don’t want to be deprived of your work. I want to watch it, too. And the world has not seen the best of you yet. So you cannot stop until some of that is put out.’ So he sort of really pushed me, ‘Get up on your feet and get out there.’ And he was right. It’s important not to lose that part of yourself.”

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