The Saddening Details Behind Why Salma Hayek Nursed a Stranger’s Baby

Her full birth name is Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez. Her married name is Salma Hayek Pinault. Salma was born September 2, 1966, in Mexico. Salma is a Latina actress, producer, and director. She paved the way for many women like her to succeed.

Despite growing up in Mexico, Hayek went to the Catholic School of New Orleans before enrolling at the National University in Mexico. She caught the attention of TV producers while she was studying. Salma was almost immediately cast as the lead role in Teresa, a daytime Spanish TV drama.

Salma was raised in a conservative Catholic environment with her Mexican mother, an opera singer, and her Lebanese father, who works in the oil industry. As a child, she was described as a spoiled brat dreaming of Hollywood success while growing up in Coatzacoalcos, California.

Upon reaching 12 years of age, she announced that she would fail her classes if she were not permitted to go to the USA. For this reason, she was sent to a Catholic school in Texas by her parents. Now, that’s what we call a driven young lady!

Two years later, her behavior, which included stunts such as setting the clocks back for all the nuns, caused the nuns to dismiss her from the school. Sadly, Salma returned to Mexico to finish her studies.

After graduating from the National University of Mexico, Salma pursued a degree in political science before moving into show business. She starred in her first Spanish telenovela, Un Nuevo Amanecer, in 1988. After her second TV role in 1989, in the top-rated soap opera Teresa, she became a national celebrity.

During the late 1990s, Salma was famous for saying that she’d get married when she got a man with more guts than her. In 2002, she began dating Edward Norton, the actor who starred in Fight Club. Having found him, she was fortunate to find true love with him, cherish him, and get to know him. In 2003, however, they parted ways, and Salma then fell in love with François-Henri Pinault, a French businessman.

Their daughter, Valentina Paloma, was born on September 20, 2007. Valentine’s Day 2009 marked the couple’s wedding in Paris, and they renewed their vows again in Venice on 25 April 2010. They were married at the Teatro La Fenice opera house, and among the guests were Bono and the well-loved Penelope Cruz. Approximately $3.5 million was spent on the wedding.

With a desire to make movies in Hollywood, Hayek relocated to Los Angeles in 1991 after Teresa came to an end. Being dyslexic and limited in her ability to speak English, she took English classes and attended Stella Adler’s acting classes. This allowed her to improve her reading and speaking skills.

As a young actress, Hayek struggled to find acting jobs when she moved to the USA, noting that there were no acting jobs for Latinas. Her accent has even been described as causing moviegoers to think of “housekeepers.” Her early acting career in the USA was very different from movies now full of Latina women.

She appeared in Dream On as a guest star, in addition to nabbing starring roles in Mi Vida Loca and the Showtime drama Roadracers. This was the first movie she worked on with Robert Rodriguez. In 1994, Hayek starred as Alma, a young woman living in poverty and becoming a courtesan in El Callejón de Los Milagros, an adaptation of the 1940 novel by Egyptian Naguib Mahfouz.

In addition to critical acclaim, the movie received more awards in Mexican cinema than any other, and Hayek was nominated in the Best Actress category for the Ariel Award.

Her perceived beauty and desirable look heavily influenced her professional and public profiles. A review noted, for example, that Hayek’s early movies, such as Desperado and Fled, often featured her in roles that were racy and symbolic of feminine charm. It helped establish her as a well-known actress.

A variety of media publications cited her beauty. Her scenes often featured her in revealing clothes, but she certainly had the looks and body to pull it off. It’s what sells, which is why they use it.

People magazine ranked Salma among the top 50 most beautiful people in 1996, then again in 2003 and 2008. In 2005 and 2007, her ranking on Maxim‘s Hot 100 list was 34th and 90th, and FHM included her on their 2005 and 2006 lists of the most desirable women in the world.

According to E-Poll Market Research, a July 2007 survey ranked Hayek first for “most desirable celebrity” out of 3,000 famous figures, with 65% describing her as attractive. At the 1997 Academy Awards, Hayek wore an Armani dress that ranked among the top five in Oscar history.

Hayek earned a starring role in Desperado, in which she played the strong and confident Carolina. The movie starred Antonio Banderas alongside Hayek and was produced by Robert Rodriguez and Elizabeth Avellan Desperado has been widely hailed as Hayek’s breakout film.

According to Hayek, the filmmaking process was grueling. She auditioned several times for the role, and the script had a love scene, which she had trouble filming due to the nudity of the scene. In one of her remarks, she said it took over eight hours to create the scene instead of one hour. Despite the modest budget of $7 million, Desperado achieved enormous success at the box office, bringing in $25.4 million in the USA.

Fools Rush In was a romantic comedy that starred Salma as Isabel Fuentes Whitman, alongside Matthew Perry. Ahead of the film’s premiere, the Mexican actress appeared on The David Letterman Show, talking about her experience working with the Friends star. However, due to cultural differences, she had trouble understanding his knock knock jokes.

During the same year, Salma starred in The Hunchback in the role of Esmeralda and played the role of Monica in Breaking Up. She was starting to land almost all of the acting jobs she was auditioning for.

In 1998, Hayek worked as a spokeswoman for Revlon, and since February 2004, she’s been an Avon spokesperson. Chopard commissioned her to model in 2001. She appeared in Spanish-language advertisements for Lincoln vehicles and 2006 advertisements for Campari, in photos taken by Mario Testino.

In April 2009, she helped launch La Doña, designed by Cartier and made famous by Mexican actress María Félix. She was the one everyone admired and whose beauty they doted on, so it made sense to use her as a spokeswoman for cosmetics and for vehicles where there is a wider audience of men.

In 1998, Hayek appeared as a young singer in the 1970s nightlife of New York City in the TV drama 54. Later in the year, she starred as a waitress in a doughnut shop in The Velocity of Gary, and then she was a nurse in the horror film The Faculty.

She worked with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in Dogma, in which she played a kidnapped scientist’s daughter. In Wild Wild West, she worked alongside Will Smith. Dogma received positive reviews from critics and audiences, while Wild Wild West was not a commercial success at the time, despite being one of the most expensive films ever produced.

A biographical film by Julie Taymor titled Frida, saw Hayek playing the surrealist painter Frida Kahlo. Hayek also served as a producer for the movie. Her interest in the role began several years before production began, having fallen in love with Kahlo’s work when she was a teenager.

She wasn’t an immediate fan, however; Kahlo’s work didn’t appeal to her at that stage in her development. Despite its beauty, Salma found it grotesque and distasteful. Eventually, she was intrigued, and her appreciation for it grew as she learned more about it.

Filled with emotion and depth, some people only see pain, but Salma sees irony and humor. What Frida’s husband Diego saw in this woman attracted him to her. Her fighting spirit made her stand out. Her spirit could’ve been diminished by several things, such as the accident or Diego’s infidelity, but nothing crushed her.

The role Salma played in Kahlo earned her nominations for an Academy Award for Best Actress and also earned her Best Actress nominations for a Golden Globe Award and a SAG Award.

Ventanarosa is Hayek’s production company, which she founded in 1999. It specializes in film and TV production. She produced Mexico’s official submission for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars, El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba. She played a waitress in the Spanish drama Living it Up and a cop and a Playboy model in the heist comedy Chain of Fools.

She played an aspiring actress in Timecode and was the star and producer of In the Time of the Butterflies, adapted from Julia Alvarez’s book about the Mirabal sisters’ lives. Hayek played Minerva, one of the sisters, and Edward James Olmos portrayed Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, their rival.

Hayek served as executive producer in the TV series Ugly Betty, having co-adapted the story with Ben Silverman. After being developed for NBC in 2004 as a half-hour sitcom, ABC picked it up for the 2006–2007 episodes. It was produced by Silvio Horta as well. As a guest star, Salma played Sofia Reyes, an editor for a magazine. In 2007, Ugly Betty was a critical audience success, receiving a Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series.

As a result, Hayek was nominated in two categories: Outstanding Guest Actress and Outstanding Comedy Series. Signing a deal with MGM to operate a Latin-focused film production company, she agreed to develop ABC projects through Ventanarosa.

In 2003, she directed and produced The Maldonado Miracle, an adaptation of the novel of the same name, for which she received a Daytime Emmy nomination. Salma worked on Spy Kids 3, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Game Over, and V-Day.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico, with a worldwide gross of $98.2 million, concluded the Mariachi Trilogy. Naturally, Hayek reprised her Desperado role.

The action comedy After the Sunset was directed by Brett Ratner in 2004, with Salma Hayek playing a master thief’s girlfriend, starring alongside Pierce Brosnan. As a box office failure, critics were largely critical of the film. Despite being a mess, Berardinelli praised the film’s quick-paced chemistry between Brosnan and Hayek, also stating it was a fun mess.

He criticized the heist’s overall structure and weak character development. During the 58th Cannes Film Festival in 2005, Salma served on the jury, she shared hosting duties with Julianne Moore at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, and she also produced Prince’s “Te Amo Corazon” music video.

Hayek’s charitable activities include raising awareness about violence against women and immigrant discrimination. In February 2006, she donated $25,000 to a domestic violence shelter and $50,000 to anti-domestic violence organizations in Monterrey, Mexico.

As a board member, she supports V-Day, Eve Ensler’s charitable organization. Hayek originally claimed not to be a feminist but later changed her mind, stating that many amazing women have shaped her into the person she is today.

During April 7-18, 2006, the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center held an exhibition entitled Solamente Salma – meaning Only Salma – featuring 16 portraits painted by muralist George Yepes and director Robert Rodriguez. The paintings featured Salma Hayek portraying an Aztec goddess.

As of July 2007, Hayek ranked fourth in The Hollywood Reporter‘s Latino Power 50, ranking the industry’s most influential Latinos. The Women in Film Lucy Award was presented to her in 2008 for her contributions to enhancing the perception of women through TV. She was ranked 17th on Entertainment Weekly‘s 25 Smartest People in TV list.

Hayek had a cameo role in Across the Universe in 2007, performing a cover of a Beatles song. The romantic jukebox musical drama was written and directed by Julie Taymor. Salma played Madame Truska, an indestructible beard-growing woman, in Cirque du Freak. In 2009, she appeared in The Vampire’s Assistant, which marked her first acting role after giving birth to her daughter.

As she described the movie, based on the Darren Shan book series, it required some hard work. Critically and commercially, the film failed. Nevertheless, Screen Rant noted that Hayek played Madame Truska with a lot of charm, but it was difficult for her to elevate the story alone.

As part of Juice Generation’s Cooler Cleanse program, Hayek collaborated with the co-founder of the company in 2008 to create her own juice line. Having written the foreword to the 2014 Juice Generation cookbook, The Juice Generation: Superfood Smoothies and Fresh Juices, she and Helms started Blend It Yourself in 2017.

This company supplies subscribers with prepared organic beauty elixirs based on acai bowl ingredients. Many were on board with that, given that Salma is beautiful, and many wanted to adopt her diet to get gorgeous skin like hers.

In addition to costarring in the comedy Grown Ups with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock, Hayek appeared in Oliver Stone’s Savages, and as the lovestruck lover in Here Comes the Boom. Her next role was as an enslaved woman who uses violence to free herself in the action film Everly.

In Tale of Tales, an adaptation of a fairy tale book written by Giambattista Basile in the 17th century, Hayek depicted a queen impregnating herself through a magic ritual that involves eating a sea monster’s heart. Her later roles were in How to Be a Latin Lover and Drunk Parents.

After already starring in many movies, Salma had an interview with Made in Hollywood, in which she talked about her experience working with her friend, the Mexican actor and comedian Eugenio, and what it was like acting in Spanish.

Incorporating Latin American humor into the movie was special, and she liked the two combined as it went well having two types of humor that worked seamlessly together. Salma was looking forward to the year ending for a well-deserved break.

During a visit to Sierra Leone, the 56-year-old Eternals star remembered a particularly poignant moment related to an incident that occurred back in 2008. A UNICEF charity mission brought Hayek to Sierra Leone, where Salma saw a young mother holding a one-week-old baby boy. Hayek nursed the young boy, the moment was captured on camera and broadcast the following year on Nightline.

In the video, Hayek explains that the boy was starving, and she was weaning her daughter Valentina, yet she still had ample milk, so she nursed. During that time, Hayek stopped nursing her one-year-old daughter, whose birthday coincided with the one-week-old boy’s. She was amazed at how much he looked at her even though he was so little, as she says in the video.

She then explained her reasoning for the gesture, saying she thought about it and wondered if it was disloyal to her child to give away her milk. Hayek then decided it’d be very rewarding for her baby to share her milk with others, hoping it would help her continue sharing and caring for others when she grows up.

ABC News reported that infant mortality was the highest in Sierra Leone, and Hayek wanted women to stop being stigmatized for nursing. It was an important subject to her, and she wanted to spread awareness.

Almost a decade later, Hayek recalled the moment during a UNICEF ball acceptance speech. She says the 15-year-old girl was crying and shaking as she held her baby, pleading that she needed milk as her baby was starving. As her daughter was being weaned, Salma had an oversupply of milk.

Hayek sat down with the baby in her arms and breastfed the little one. At the time, she didn’t think much about it as the baby was starving, and as a mother, she wanted to help the infant in whatever way she could.

In 2009, Salma Hayek sparked a whole new debate about nursing with the release of a YouTube video. In an interview with ABC’s Nightline, Hayek explained that she fed the newborn to promote nursing in an area where infant mortality is high, mainly due to malnutrition.

In places like Sierra Leone, starvation is an immediate threat. Even when alternative sources of nourishment are appropriate, practicable, cost-effective, reliable, and safe, which isn’t seen in many impoverished countries, women choose to nurse.

As of 2020, her credits include the comedy Like a Boss, featuring her as a ruthless cosmetics magnate, and The Roads Not Taken, which tells the story of a man dreaming about the alternative lives he could’ve lived. Needless to say, she was great in both of these movies.

In Bliss, Hayek stars in a sci-fi dramedy about someone who believes that the world is a virtual reality simulation. She portrayed the immortal character Ajak in Eternals, a Marvel Cinematic Universe film. Aside from that, Hayek has voiced several animated films, including The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

Salma, her 14-year-old daughter Valentina, and her husband Francois-Henri Pinault own an extraordinary 17-bedroom mansion in London. This mansion was once occupied by Justin Bieber – what a name to share homeownership with!

After moving from France in 2014, the 55-year-old reportedly started renting the house in 2017. The couple has not been reported to have purchased a new home since then, so it’s safe to assume they’ve remained in the same place. According to reports, the house has three floors and includes an indoor pool, fitness center, movie theater, and tennis court. Now that’s what we call living the life!