Salma Hayek has been married to billionaire François-Henri Pinault, CEO and chairman of the fashion conglomerate Kering, for nearly seven years, but the actress still gushes about him.
"I wish I knew [when I was younger] that I was going to fall crazy in love with the perfect man," Hayek recently told Allure magazine. "I was so worried, and I dated some people I shouldn't have dated ... You get desperate, and you start seeing wonderful things in the wrong guys. 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."
Today the two are proud parents to their 8-year-old daughter, Valentina Paloma Pinault, but Hayek acknowledges that having a child changed her professional ambition.
"I said, 'I don't think I want to work anymore,'" the Oscar-nominated actress, who gave birth when she was 41, told Allure. "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're not putting up with some lazy girl in the house. That's not who I married.'
"And then he said something so beautiful," she added. "'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, like, 'Get up on your feet and get out there.' And he was right."
Hayek has gone back to work but tells Allure: "I've never been apart from my daughter for more than two weeks. And same with François. We don't separate for long periods of time. Never."
Since the birth of her daughter in 2007, Hayek has appeared in 15 TV and film projects, and she has three more lined up through 2016. She is now promoting "The Prophet," an animated film based on Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran's book, which she is producing and voicing a character in.
Last weekend, Hayek accompanied Pinault to Sun Valley for Allen & Co.'s 33rd annual weeklong conference, aka summer camp for billionaires.
In May, the two attended the Cannes Film Festival.
They can often be found sitting front row at fashion shows ...
... or hand-in-hand on the red carpet.
SEE ALSO: 24 power couples at Allen & Co.'s annual 'summer camp for billionaires'
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