Salma Hayek defends that she did not marry for money

Despite the fact that they have been married for 12 years and have a daughter in common, the marriage of Salma Hayek to French millionaire François-Henri Pinault is still up for debate. Tired of repeating that she married for money and convenience, the actress decided to raise her voice and tackle the topic for the first time.

“When I married him everyone said, ‘It’s an arranged marriage, she married him for money,’ but 15 years later we are very much in love,” he said during an interview with the podcast. Armchair specialisthosted by Dax Shepard.

“In the images you can’t get a glimpse of the magic that’s inside him, but it made me a much better person and made me grow in a good and healthy way,” he added.

Pinault, 58, is a fashion entrepreneur, CEO of Kering, the business group that controls brands such as Alexander McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci. According to Forbes magazine, the man collects a fortune of $ 30 billion.

In an effort to defend her husband and the comments they usually make about him, Hayek launched a controversial sentence. “There is discrimination against rich men. They immediately think that because someone is rich, they may not be a good person, that they can be materialistic, even stupid, that they don’t deserve what they have or that in order to have a lot of money they have done evil, ”he said. and added, “There are all those prejudices and unfortunately I listened to them”.

During the conversation, the Mexican also admitted that it wasn’t love at first sight, but that it was Pinault’s attitude that eventually fell completely in love with her. “In the beginning he was not my type at all. I came up with preconceived ideas and he undid them all ”.

On November 19, Hayek dedicated some sweet words to her husband through his Instagram account and thanked him for standing by his side. “Never, not in my greatest dreams, could I have imagined sharing my life with such an extraordinary and wonderful man. You are our strength, our inspiration, our home ”, he expressed in the message, written in English and French.

The love affair between Salma and François took place on April 29, 2006 during a gala dinner in Venice, where she was the guest of honor. After that dinner, Pinault asked if they would get him all the Mexican movies, because he wanted to know more about her. On February 14, 2009, they married under civil law and then two months later celebrated a religious ceremony in Venice, in the same Palazzo where they met.