For many people, marrying a billionaire would mean money stops being a concern. But, for Salma Hayek, that wasn’t necessarily the case.
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As you may know, Salma is married to François-Henri Pinault, the CEO of Kering, which is a luxury goods company that owns brands like Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, and Alexander McQueen.
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According to Forbes, François-Henri — who inherited the luxury retail business from his father in 2005 — has a net worth of $20.7 billion, making him the 99th richest person in the world.
In a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, Salma revealed that she and her husband never signed a prenup when they married in 2009 and, as a result, still keep their finances separate. For this reason, she has a solid motivation to make her own money.
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“I support a lot of the aspects of my life and myself. I have the pressure to make a certain amount of money, and I like it. And now, I decided, I want to make more,” she said, adding that François-Henri finds her ambition “kind of sexy.”
Like her husband, Salma was also born into a pretty wealthy family. Her father was an oil executive, and she grew up in southern Mexico with four live-in maids and was accustomed to flying on private jets.
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However, after she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting in her 20s, her father lost his fortune, leaving Salma to support her family back home.
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Recalling this in her WSJ interview, Salma said: “That’s when I became the best version of myself.”
Giving some frank insight into life with extreme wealth, Salma said that, after marrying François-Henri, she was most surprised by how money dominated conversations and connections among the rich.
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“To me, the excitement about having a lot of money was that I didn’t have to think about money, and it turned out all people wanted to talk to me about was money,” she said. “Strangers coming to me that aren’t even friends, but they think we should be friends because they’re rich, too.”
I’m pretty surprised by Salma’s revelations — she has a serious work ethic, that’s for sure! Would you still be so motivated to make your own money if you were married to a mega-billionaire without a prenup? LMK in the comments.
