Linda Evangelista isn’t just one of the most famous supermodels in the world, but she also counts some famous faces as part of her blended family. Sharing her son Augustin James Evangelista with Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault means that her 16-year-old has a stepmother in Salma Hayek. And now, the ’90s icon has shared a glimpse into what co-parenting with the actress is really like.
In a cover story for Vogue’s September issue, Evangelista, 58, even recounted a sweet story about how the actress went to great lengths to keep her company when she was sick during the holidays.
“I was sick at Thanksgiving,” she recalled to the outlet. “And Salma got on the plane with her daughter, came here, and made Thanksgiving dinner.” And before you picture the billionaire ordering lavish catering, think again. Instead, Hayek showered the model with a homecooked meal. “She asked what I wanted—it was a very eclectic wish list,” Evangelista explained. “I wanted her Mexican chicken with truffled potatoes, and she spent the day in the kitchen and cooked it herself. No help. The kids helped her at the end. She made a feast—a beautiful, beautiful meal.”
Initially, Evangelista was adamant to sit the holidays out, but Hayek was unperturbed. “I had told her that I wasn’t going to have Thanksgiving; I wasn’t feeling well. And she said, ‘Oh yes, you are. I am coming.’ And poof, she was here.”
Evangelista dated Pinault, 61, for a few months in the mid-2000s before giving birth to Augustin in October 2006. At the time, she didn’t publicly announce the identity of her child’s father, but all was revealed in 2011 through court documents she filed seeking child support from the French billionaire.
By then, Hayek and Pinault had been married for two years and had welcomed their daughter, Valentina Paloma Pinault, 15.
Pinault is the CEO of French luxury fashion house Kering, the parent company to brands such as Bottega Veneta, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Gucci. According to Forbes, the self-made billionaire is worth an estimated USD $38.5 billion (AUD $59.4 billion).
Speaking on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, Hayek addressed the criticisms she faced when marrying into wealth. “When I married him, everybody said, ‘It’s an arranged marriage, she’s marrying him for the money’,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, whatever b*tch, think what you want’. Fifteen years together, and we are strong in love, and I don’t even get offended.”
