What is Salma Hayek's Net Worth and Salary?
Salma Hayek is a Mexican-born actress who has a net worth of $200 million. Though it should be noted that Salma Hayek has been married to one of the wealthiest people in the world, Francois Henri Pinault, since 2009. As of this writing, Francois is worth $7 billion. His father, Francoise Pinault, is worth $40 billion. Francoise Sr. is the founder of Kering, the holding company that owns Gucci, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Puma, Brioni, and Maui Jim, among many others.
Salma and Francoise Jr. do not have a prenuptual agreement. If they ever divorced, Salma's share of community property and future support would drastically increase her net worth. But hopefully, that never happens!
After starring in the popular Mexican telenovela, "Teresa," in the late 80s and early 90s, Salma Hayek moved to Los Angeles to study acting and English. While launching her career in the US, she starred in "El Callejon de los Milagros," the most award-winning film in Mexican film history. Back in the United States, she made her English-language debut in Robert Rodriguez's sleeper hit, "Desperado," opposite Antonio Banderas. From there, she went on to roles in such films as "From Dusk Till Dawn," "Fools Rush In," "54," "Wild Wild West," "Dogma," "Timecode," and "Hotel." She subsequently decided to launch her own production company and began producing work in 2000. In 2002, she starred in and co-produced the bio-pic "Frida," about the life and work of Frida Kahlo. The film, which was directed by Julie Taymor, went on to win multiple awards and netted her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Since then, she has gone back and forth between film and television roles, appearing in such projects as "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," "Ask the Dust," "Across the Universe," "Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," "Grown Ups," "Savages," "Here Comes the Boom," "Grown Ups 2," and Marvel's "Eternals." She also produced and played a recurring role on the hit series, "Ugly Betty," and recurred on "30 Rock."
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Early Life and Career Beginnings
Salma Hayek, was born Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez on September 2, 1966, in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico. Her father, Sami Hayek Domínguez, was an oil company executive in Mexico and also the owner of an industrial-equipment firm. Additionally, he once ran for political office for the position of mayor of Coatzacoalcos. He is Lebanese Mexican. Her mother, Diana Jiménez Medina, was an opera singer and talent scout. Salma is of Spanish and Lebanese descent.
Hayek was raised along with her younger brother, Sami, in a wealthy and devout Roman Catholic family. The family had four live-in maids when she was young. When she was 12 years old, her family sent her to the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. She later continued her education at the Universidad Iberoamericana, studying international relations.
Unfortunately, by the time Salma had moved to Los Angeles to become an actress in the late 1980s, her father had lost the entire family fortune. So Salma was a struggling actress when she first started pursuing a career in television and her first paychecks went back to Mexico to support her family.
When she was 23 years old, Hayek was cast as the lead in the Mexican telenovela "Teresa." Thanks to the telenovela, she became a star and household name in Mexico. She continued her popularity with a starring role in the film "El Callejón de los Milagros (Miracle Alley)" (1994). It is the most-awarded movie in the history of Mexican cinema, and Hayek was nominated for an Ariel Award.
Acting and Directing Career
In 1991, Hayek moved to Los Angeles, California, to study acting. Her teacher was the renowned acting coach Stella Adler. At the time, Hayek struggled with dyslexia, as well as limited English fluency. Her hard work paid off, and in 1995, Robert Rodriguez cast her as the lead in the film "Desperado," opposite Antonio Banderas. Her career in the United States began to pick up momentum, and she landed a small role in "From Dusk Till Dawn" (1996) as a vampire queen. Although her role was brief, her performance was highly memorable thanks to an erotic table-top snake dance that she performed. Then, she starred opposite Matthew Perry in the romantic comedy "Fools Rush In" (1997) and co-starred with Will Smith in the film "Wild Wild West" (1999).
Other films Hayek has starred in include "In the Time of the Butterflies" (2001), "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" (2003), "Grown Ups" (2010), and "Grown Ups 2" (2013). She voiced the character Kitty Softpaws in the animated film "Puss in Boots" (2011) opposite Antonio Banderas and its sequel, "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" (2022). She also lent her voice to "Sausage Party" (2016), and more recently has appeared in the films "How to Be a Latin Lover" (2017), "The Hitman's Bodyguard" (2017), Marvel's "Eternals" (2021), and "House of Gucci" (2021).
Hayek founded her own film production company, Ventanarosa, around the year 2000. In April 2007, she became CEO of the company after negotiations with MGM, and then in May of that year, she signed a two-year deal with ABC, under which Ventanarosa would develop projects for the network. The first film she produced was "El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba" (1999). She has gone on to produce other projects like the Showtime movie "The Maldonado Miracle" (2003), which she also directed; the NBC television show "Ugly Betty," which aired from 2006 to 2010; and the film "Frida" (2002), which she co-produced and also starred in. Additionally, she has directed music videos for artists like Prince and Jada Pinkett Smith.
She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her acting in the film "Frida," and she won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing in a Children/Youth/Family Special for "The Maldonado Miracle."
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Endorsements and Entrepreneurship
Since February 2004, Hayek has served as spokeswoman for Avon cosmetics. She has also been a spokeswoman for the cosmetics brand Revlon since 1998. She has modeled and starred in advertisement campaigns for brands like Chopard, Campari, and Lincoln. Additionally, Hayek has engaged in various entrepreneurial pursuits. She co-founded the juice delivery program Cooler Cleanse in 2008 with Juice Generation. Then, in 2017, she launched the beauty subscription delivery service Blend It Yourself along with Juice Generation founder Eric Helms. Through the service, customers could order pre-prepared items like organic frozen smoothies and ingredients for acai bowls. In 2011, Hayek also launched her own line of products at CVS in North America, Nuance by Salma Hayek, which included cosmetics, skincare, and hair care products.
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Marriage to Francois Henri-Pinault
In 2009, Salma Hayek married French billionaire Francois Henri-Pinault, who is currently worth $7 billion. Together, they have a daughter, Valentina Paloma Pinault. The Pinault family owns luxury goods conglomerate Kering. Kering is the umbrella company that owns Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Puma, Volcom, Brioni and more. Francois has been CEO of the company since 2005, though his father, the company's founder, is still the largest individual shareholder and is currently worth $14 billion. In 2019, the Pinault family pledged $113 million to support the reconstruction of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, which suffered extensive fire damage on April 15, 2019.
Charity Work and Activism
Hayek has campaigned extensively to end violence against women. In July 2005, she testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary in support of reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. Then, in February 2006, she donated $25,000 to a shelter for battered women in her hometown, Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, and $50,000 to anti-domestic violence groups in Monterrey, Mexico. In 2013, Hayak partnered with Beyoncé and Frida Giannini on a Gucci campaign, "Chime for Change," aimed at spreading a message of female empowerment. For her humanitarian work, Hayek was nominated for the VH1 Do Something Awards in 2010.
