Not even France's richest man could convince Salma Hayek to say "I do" in 2009. In a new interview, the 56-year-old Magic Mike's Last Dance star revealed that she was so afraid of getting married to François-Henri Pinault that her family "dragged" her down the aisle. Someone get J.Lo a script for this rom-com, STAT.
Salma told the unusual story of how she came to marry her longtime love while chatting with Glamour magazine.
The actress got candid about the tumultuous start to her marriage to the French billionaire as part of a cover story published on Wednesday. In it, she described her wedding day as an "intervention"-style undertaking where she was whisked off to a destination unknown before being forced down the aisle.
Even Salma's family was in on the deception.
On Valentine's Day in 2009, Salma had no idea she was "getting married" until her family showed up and took her to the wedding.
"They just took me to the court," she recalled. "My parents, my brother, they were all ganging up on me. I had a phobia of the marriage thing."
Salma and François-Henri were engaged and already had a child together at the time.
While Salma had already told François-Henri that she would marry him, nobody was convinced that she would actually follow through on her promise.
"I was nervous. I had said yes to the marriage, but I just wouldn't actually show up on the day or do it," she admitted.
Fortunately for Salma, not much changed after she said "I do."
Her biggest fear was that things wouldn't be the same after they tied the knot.
Salma said she was given "no choice" but to follow through with her promise and marry François-Henri. Fortunately for both of them, her biggest fears never came true and she discovered that married life wasn't really "any different" than the life she and her husband had already built for themselves.
It was a long road to get to where they are today.
Salma said she now feels embarrassed about how hard she made her husband work — she rejected two proposals before finally agreeing to marry him — and that they went on to have a bigger wedding ceremony with all of their friends and family.
These days, they have two anniversaries to celebrate, which seems to be just fine with Salma. It would appear that everything worked out in the end!
