Salma Hayek
Credit: Mark Boland/Mark Boland/Getty Images

For Salma Hayek, her case of COVID-19 was near-fatal in 2020. In an interview with Variety in the lead up to her role for House of Gucci, the actress recalled spending seven weeks quarantined in her house and refused to go to hospital when she needed to be put on oxygen.

“My doctor begged me to go to the hospital because it was so bad,” Hayek told the publication. “I said, ‘No, thank you. I’d rather die at home.'”

It’s no secret that some of the world’s most recognisable figures succumbed to the effects of coronavirus in 2020. Gwyneth Paltrow revealed she still experiences symptoms long after recovery (long-tail fatigue and brain fog) and the same can be said for Hayek. According to the report, the 54-year-old mother of one child (13-year-old daughter, Valentina) says she still hasn’t regained full energy.

Last November Hayek published to Instagram a montage of getting tested for coronavirus. Note: it’s not for the faint-hearted.

Other celebrities that contracted the virus include Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. The couple had just touched down in Australia before giving a positive result. Khloé Kardashian revealed she contracted the illness on the October 29 episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

“Just found out that I do have corona,” Kardashian said in a self-recording. “I have been in my room. It’s gonna be fine, but it was really bad for a couple days.”

Hayek will appear in Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci as Pina Auriemma, a clairvoyant friend of Patrizia Reggiani (played by Lady Gaga). Gaga’s character served 18 years in an Italian prison for orchestrating the 1995 murder of her husband Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver).

House of Gucci
Credit: Supplied / NBC

The forthcoming film has garnered backlash from the original Gucci family with Patrizia Gucci, one of Maurizio’s second cousins saying, “we are truly disappointed.”

According to the Associated Press (via Marie Claire), Ms. Gucci said, “They are stealing the identity of a family to make a profit, to increase the income of the Hollywood system…Our family has an identity, privacy. We can talk about everything, but there is a borderline that cannot be crossed.”