Salma Hayek Says She Now Uses Her Full Married Name—14 Years After Getting Married

Even though Salma Hayek married François-Henri Pinault in 2009, the Eternals star has always been referred to by her maiden name. Now, the actress has decided to use her full married name. While appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on January 30, 2023, she explained why she wants people to call her Salma Hayek Pinault going forward. As it turns out, that's been her legal name for years—despite her best efforts to be billed using her full name, movie studios simply didn't use it, People reports. “I’ve always had the same name, but everybody refused to say it,” she told host Jimmy Kimmel. “My publicists are now saying ‘OK’ because they don’t even put it sometimes in the movies and like, ‘Why didn’t you put her full name? Oh, we forgot. Sorry, it’s been printed.’”

In the episode, Kimmel also asked the Oscar-nominated actress how her husband, CEO of Kering, feels about some of her steamy scenes with Channing Tatum in her latest film, Magic Mike’s Last Dance. The host noted, “Because I don’t know what I’d think if I saw my wife in that scenario.” Hayek Pinault responded with the sultry answer of, “He gets the same but even better without the clothes.”

Hayek Pinault and her French businessman husband first started dating in 2006, and they’ve been married for 14 years. The pair said “I do” at a courthouse in Paris on Valentine’s Day in 2009, but the Frida star recently revealed in a cover interview with Glamour published on February 8, 2023, that the wedding was a complete surprise and she had no part in planning any of it. “I didn’t even know I was getting married that day,” she told the outlet. “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.”

Since her family was so persistent about the wedding, Hayek Pinault said she had no other choice but to cave. “I was nervous,” she admitted. After the courthouse ceremony, the couple joined their family at a reception, which she also didn’t arrange. “And then after, there was a lunch at his parents’ house,” she recalled. “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.”

Even though the actress knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Pinault, she didn’t want a wedding. “It was because I had said yes to the marriage, but I just wouldn’t actually show up on the day or do it,” she noted. “And then afterwards, I said, ‘Oh, it’s OK. I don’t feel any different.’” The Emmy-nominated actress finally started coming around to the idea of a wedding. “And then, a little bit later, I said, ‘OK, this is kind of exciting,’” she says. After embracing the celebration, Hayek Pinault decided to throw a larger ceremony with all of the couple's friends in April of 2009 in Venice, Italy. Then, in 2018, the businessman surprised his wife with a vow renewal in Bora Bora.

After being together for over a decade, Hayek Pinault credits marrying the right person to their long-lasting relationship. “That is probably the most important thing,” she told Harper’s Bazaar in 2017. “We support each other in everything we do. We want the other one to strive—makes you happy when the other one strives. And you know what? We don’t have a very strong social life because we really like to spend time together, so we do spend a lot of quality time together.”