Salma Hayek celebrated her daughter Valentina’s 17th birthday with a heartfelt tribute, sharing a series of nostalgic photos of her daughter.
In an emotional Instagram post, the 58-year-old actress reflected on Valentina’s “last birthday at home” and shared videos and pictures that show Valentina growing up, including moments with her husband, François-Henri Pinault.
One photo shows Valentina with playful cat face paint in the backseat of a car, another has her smiling with plastic fangs, and a third captures her climbing a tree.
Salma wrote, “My baby’s last birthday at home (for now). I’m already feeling sad about her leaving. She makes me laugh all day, teaches me so much, and inspires me in many ways. She makes life so exciting. I love you so much, mi Vale!”
Salma Hayek and her daughter Valentina have a close relationship, and Valentina has expressed a desire to follow in her mother’s footsteps. In a 2023 interview with Vogue Mexico, she said, “I want different things, but I often think about four main paths. I’d like to be an actress and then a director because that makes sense to me.” She added that having experience as an actress would help her as a director.
Salma, who is also a stepmother to François-Henri Pinault’s children, often has Valentina by her side at red carpet events, including the Oscars. In 2022, they even appeared together in a special feature in Vogue Mexico.
Salma and François-Henri, who married in 2009, were recently listed in The Sunday Times Rich List for 2024 with a combined net worth of about $7.7 billion. This is down from around $10.1 billion in 2023, which caused their ranking to drop from 21st to 31st.
François-Henri has been the chairman and CEO of Kering since 2005, while Salma’s net worth is estimated to be over $125 million, thanks to her successful acting career and beauty endorsements. Before marrying Salma, François-Henri was married to Dorothée Lepère and has two children with her, as well as a son, Augustin, from a previous relationship with supermodel Linda Evangelista.
Salma Hayek was once linked to actor Edward Norton.
The birthday celebration comes after Salma shared a scary experience she had with her friend Penelope Cruz when they thought they might die in a plane crash.
Salma and Penelope, who have been friends for over 20 years, had a frightening moment when their plane had to make an emergency landing in Mexico. Penelope, who is already afraid of flying, realized something was wrong when a crew member rushed out of the cockpit wearing an oxygen mask.
In an interview for Vogue Arabia, Penelope asked Salma what she learned from this scary experience. Salma replied, “You’ve always been afraid of flying, and you always tell me what to do if you die in a crash!”
Salma recalled a scary day when she and Penelope were on a flight that had to make an emergency landing in a remote area of Mexico.
She explained, “I knew something was wrong when I saw a flight attendant come out of the cockpit and grab an oxygen mask. So, I took your hands and told you we were going to be okay. I could see you were trying hard to calm down, and I was really proud of you.”
Salma said, “We could make a whole movie about that day! Then you said something beautiful that I’ll never forget: ‘I thought maybe we were going to die, but if we did, at least we would die together, and we would be okay.'”
