Salma Hayek might be confidently dancing in the steamy and sexy stripper threequel Magic Mike’s Last Dance and rocking see-through looks on red carpets, but it turns out she needed a little more than confidence and a big nudge from her family to get married. The reason I say this is, as the actress reflected on her 2009 marriage to François-Henri Pinault she revealed the wedding wasn’t the glamorous event you’d likely expect from the actress, but rather an impromptu ceremony that her family drug her to.
The actress revealed that her family put on a sort of “intervention” for her because she had been so averse to getting married. Hayek explained she thinks she had a phobia of saying "I do," despite wanting to spend the rest of her life with her then-fiancé. She told Glamour:
I didn’t even know I was getting married that day. It was like an intervention. 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.
Hayek then explained the reason they did a courthouse wedding is that her family “dragged” her there. She continued the story of how they surprised her, saying:
I was nervous. And then, after, there was a lunch at his parents’ house. My mother-in-law, who’s the most tasteful person when it comes to entertaining, had already been doing the lunch. I had no choice.
The actress had her courthouse wedding on Valentine’s Day back in 2009. So considering her 14-year anniversary with French fashion mogul François-Henri Pinault is on the horizon, and she’s out promoting her movie on the 2023 movie schedule (which comes out February 10), it’s fitting that she dished about her shocking wedding day.
When asked why she didn’t say no to the surprise nuptials, she said she wasn’t going to opt out of the ceremony, even if it scared her. The Magic Mike’s Last Dance star said:
No! It was because I had said yes to the marriage, but I just wouldn’t actually show up on the day or do it. And then afterward I said, ‘Oh, it’s okay. I don’t feel any different.’ And then a little bit later I said, ‘Okay, this is kind of exciting.’ And he’s like, ‘Can we have a party now?’
A few months later the happy couple had a bigger ceremony, which was, I’m assuming, not a surprise to Hayek. Now, the Oscar-winner and Pinault have been married for a long time, and the actress noted they are extremely happy together.
In the years since Hayek’s surprise wedding, she’s also faced her fears and taken on challenges professionally. While shooting Eternals, the actress revealed she was ‘terrified’ of her costume, saying another phobia of hers is small spaces. However, once she put it on she was “profoundly moved.” And like the time she got married, she soon realized she could conquer her fear.
On a similar note, the actress explained that filming the lap dance in Last Dance with Channing Tatum was physically challenging. However, she worked through it, and if you’ve seen the trailer, you know the end product came out well.
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If I’ve learned anything from this story about Hayek’s surprise wedding, it’s that even when she’s scared, she’ll follow through. She also seems to end up loving whatever it was she was challenged by.
You’ll be able to catch Hayek and Channing Tatum in Magic Mike’s Last Dance in theaters on February 9, and in the meantime, you can watch the first two films in the stripper’s saga with an HBO Max subscription. Then on February 14, don't forget to wish Hayek and her hubby a happy anniversary as they celebrate their surprise wedding.
