Salma Hayek Says She Had ‘No Choice’ to Marry François-Henri Pinault in Surprise Wedding

Salma Hayek recently told Glamour magazine that she never had any plans on getting married. In fact, her wedding day was a complete surprise to her. She said “I do” to her longtime love, French businessman François-Henri Pinault, in a surprise courthouse ceremony in 2009. But she promises she had no idea what was on her itinerary for that day. “The reason why it was a courthouse wedding was because they dragged me there,” she explained, noting the whole thing “was like an intervention.” She added: “I don’t think I ever told this story. No, they just took me to the court. My parents, my brother, they were all ganging up on me. I had a phobia of the marriage thing. I actually didn’t believe in marriage. I didn’t want to marry him.”

Hayek says Pinault proposed multiple times before the impromptu ceremony. But she was a runaway bride. Luckily, he didn’t give up and took matters into his own hands. “He tried for a long time, and I would say yes, and then I wouldn’t show up. And he didn’t go away when I didn’t show up, he had to stick around until we got it done. And I was terrified,” she said.

Hayek says she “had no choice” but to finally marry her now husband. There was also a planned lunch post-wedding that her mother-in-law organized without her knowlege. She had fears that marriage would change things for them, but was wrong. 

“And then afterward I said, ‘Oh, it’s okay. I don’t feel any different,’” she said. “And then a little bit later I said, ‘Okay, this is kind of exciting.’ And he’s like, ‘Can we have a party now?’”

Hayek says the key to their success is communication, revealing on Red Table Talk in 2021 that they talk through their issues. She says problem solving is their skill.