Salma Hayek has spent the better part of the past year recovering from a near-fatal case of Covid-19, a fact she chose to keep quiet until now.
She battled the virus in the early days of the pandemic and spent about seven weeks isolated in a room of the London mansion she shares with her husband, Kering CEO Francois-Henri Pinault, and their 13-year-old daughter, Valentina.
At one point, she was put on oxygen.
"My doctor begged me to go to the hospital because it was so bad," Hayek, 54. "I said, 'No, thank you. I'd rather die at home.'"
She still hasn't fully regained the energy she once had.
However, she returned to work in April to shoot Ridley Scott's "House of Gucci," in which she plays a clairvoyant who was convicted of helping Patrizia Reggiani (played by Lady Gaga) orchestrate the 1995 killing of her ex-husband Maurizio Gucci (portrayed by Adam Driver), an heir to the Gucci fashion empire.
"It was not a lot of time," Hayek said. "It was easy. It was the perfect job to just get back into it. I had started doing Zooms at one point, but I could only do so many because I would get so tired."