Salma Hayek Pinault's Family 'Dragged' Her to the Courthouse for Wedding Due to 'Marriage Phobia'

The Magic Mike's Last Dance star said her family held an "intervention" to get her to wed French businessman François-Henri Pinault in Glamour's February cover story

Salma Hayek
Salma Hayek Pinault. Photo: Trae Patton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

Salma Hayek Pinault needed an "intervention" to pull off the wedding ceremony betrothing her to her husband, French businessman François-Henri Pinault, on Valentine's Day in 2009.

"I didn't even know I was getting married that day," the Magic Mike's Last Dance actress, 56, told Glamour in its February cover story out now. "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."

She says her family "dragged" her to the courthouse.

The couple had been dating since 2006, and welcomed daughter Valentina Paloma in 2007.

"I was nervous," she told Glamour. "And then, after, there was a lunch at his parents' house. 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."

Saying "no" didn't feel like a viable option, she admitted.

"It was because I had said yes to the marriage, but I just wouldn't actually show up on the day or do it," Hayek Pinault said. "And then afterward I said, 'Oh, it's okay. I don't feel any different.' And then a little bit later I said, 'Okay, this is kind of exciting.' And he's like, 'Can we have a party now?'"

François-Henri Pinault and Salma Hayek
Salma Hayek Pinault and François-Henri Pinault. Presley Ann/Getty

Months later, they held a traditional wedding ceremony in Venice, Italy, attended by about 150 family and friends including Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton, Woody Harrelson, Ashley Judd, Charlize Theron, Bono, Gael Garcéa Bernal, David Blaine, Anna Wintour, and former French President Jacques Chirac.

In addition to raising daughter Valentina Paloma, 15, she's an active stepmom to his three children from previous relationships.

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"I married a man who is very supportive, who saw things in me that I never even saw in myself," she told the magazine.

Nearly 14 years later, Hayek Pinault relishes the boredom that accompanies married life.

"Boredom is underestimated," she said. "I didn't understand this for a long time. Also, it helps that we met each other later in our lives. It's okay just to do nothing and be together; sometimes sharing a space and doing your own thing in silence, with connectivity and thoughtfulness — 'Can I bring you a cup of tea?' — is enough. It's little simple things."

He also welcomes her on-set friendships.

Hayek Pinault tells PEOPLE she became good friends with her Magic Mike's Last Dance cast mates who play the various strippers — and, eventually, so did her husband.

"My husband is not a jealous man," she says. "I used to call him all the time [from set] and say, 'Oh my God, I feel so bad,' because I had this predisposition about how the guys, the strippers were going to be. But they're not. They're lovely. They're such great guys. And [my husband] goes, 'Oh God, you're becoming best friends with the strippers, aren't you?' And I said, 'Yes!' "

"And then he came a couple of times to the set. There was especially one who would come and ask him advice for business. He spoke French and he knew everything about François. He says, 'I'm a big fan.' He reacted more to François than to me!"

Hayek Pinault adds, "By the end of the movie they all came to the house. They were all hanging out with me. Then François was saying, 'You're right, they're adorable, they're lovely.'"

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