This is Valentina Pinault, Salma Hayek’s 14-year-old daughter, who wants to be an “actress and director”
The young woman, born from the actress’s relationship with the businessman François Henri Pinault, poses for the first time with her mother on the cover of ‘Vogue Mexico,’ giving her first-ever interview
Valentina Paloma Rinault Hayek was born famous. The daughter of Salma Hayek and François Henri Pinault came into the world in September 2007, after the world learned of the Mexican actress’s pregnancy in March of the same year. Her birth was highly anticipated, and she has been photographed many times. Two months after the girl’s birth, Hayek released Valentina’s first photograph, which showed the two posing together.
Fourteen years later, Hayek has once again herself been photographed with her daughter. For the first time, the 55-year-old actress shares a magazine cover with Valentina, who says that she would like to be “an actress and a director.” The story appears in the Mexican edition of Vogue magazine. In addition to posing for half a dozen portraits, the pair have also granted an interview. “What a great early Mother’s Day present,” Hayek wrote on her Instagram profile, where she has more than 21 million followers. “Loving these beautiful photos by Nico Bustos,” she said, in reference to the Spanish photographer who has photographed them, “and this special moment with my Valentina. Thank you Vogue Mexico!”
The Mexican explains that Valentina’s arrival has been the most important event in her life. She had her daughter at age 41, and she says that she became a mother “very late.” “I did it because I found my life partner and I had a stable career, but I already wanted this daughter so much that nothing else mattered to me, not my career or anything else. I think that helped me a lot. I also felt that I had already done many things in my life, so it was already a different stage for me because I had already done things that I was already very proud of,” she confesses almost two decades later. She also says that today “being a mother is scarier than ever. Too much is asked of women.”
The actress, businesswoman and producer says that her husband insisted that she return to acting when the girl was “just over a year old.” “Because at some point I might miss my work, because I had also received recognition, because it allows me to unleash my creativity and because I am an artist. It was about three years after having Valentina that I began to act little by little and to travel. When she was seven years old she began wanting to have her own rhythm and her own space. Although I have managed to continue acting and have been able to keep my profession alive, and I adore it, it is never easy. There are times when decisions become more and more complicated. Family is always the first priority,” she says.
Hayek says that she no longer takes on long projects, “except when she goes camping.” “I think that’s when I ask for a movie,” she jokes. Joking about her involvement as a Latina in raising her daughter, Hayek says: “A Mexican mom is a Mexican mom, no matter where you are.” Valentina agrees: “She always calls me to ask if I already ate, if I’m already asleep. It doesn’t matter if she’s in L.A. and I’m in London. She calls me. And yes, I have to teach her how to use her phone.” Valentina explains that she uses social media not so much for the likes but to “have something to say.” “I want to post things about who I want to be.”
According to Hayek, the 14-year-old has always been independent when it comes to dressing. Now, she expresses that independence when it comes to putting on makeup. “Since she was little, she never let me choose her clothes, and I always liked that. She is also very good with makeup. I’m good at makeup, but now she teaches me,” explains the actress. The young Valentina says that she loves her mother’s wardrobe. “I always wear what I like. I hardly pay attention to the brand. In general, I also like to combine and wear vintage pieces. I like brands, but I don’t wear things just because of that, but because I like them,” the teenager explains. Valentina’s father is president of Kering, the conglomerate of luxury brands that brings together Gucci, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney. He has three other children, two from a previous marriage and one with Linda Evangelista.
