Salma Hayek has spoken candidly about the day she decided to nurse a stranger’s child and the conflicting responses her unselfish deed elicited.
Now, Hayek is an absolute legend of cinema. Born on September 2, 1966, she gained international fame for her roles in both Mexican and Hollywood films.
Hayek’s breakthrough came in 2002 with the film Frida, in which she portrayed renowned Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, earning her an Academy Award nomination.
She has since appeared in numerous successful movies, including Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Eternals and Grown Ups.
Her most recent movie, Magic Mike’s Last Dance, saw Hayek get up close and personal with Channing Tatum.
“That was the one want for how we are in this story,” Tatum told ET about her casting. “I just really wanted the strongest possible [woman] and she came in [and] actually controlled the whole thing.
“She came and saved our movie because we had a bunch of men that were trying to tell a story about a woman.”
Aside from Hollywood, Hayek is also involved in humanitarian work and women’s rights activism. Her talent, beauty, and advocacy have made her a prominent figure in the entertainment industry and beyond.
So, it’s no surprise that when the star posts to Instagram, all hell breaks loose.
Hayek is known for posting pics of her incredible physique, as well as keeping things real as she shares some of the realities of aging.
However, most recently, Hayek has sparked attention after sharing that she breastfed a child that wasn’t hers, and now she’s opened up about why.
She thought back to a situation that occurred in 2008 while she was on a humanitarian tour to Sierra Leone.
She stumbled upon a young mother and her one-week-old infant son while she was on a UNICEF charity trip.
Salma was spotted nursing the infant while sitting down with him as a camera team captured the moment.
Salma explained in the clip: “He was very hungry – I was weaning my daughter Valentina, but I still had a lot of milk, so I breast-fed the baby.”
She continued: “I thought about it, am I being disloyal to my child by giving her milk away? I actually think my baby would be very proud to be able to share her milk and when she grows up I will make sure she continues to share and be a generous caring person.”
Salma added: “It is amazing because he’s really looking at me and he’s very little. My baby is one year so she can suck a lot harder.”
Salma told CBS News’ John Blackstone that she had encountered conflicting reactions after feeding the stranger’s child, saying: “There was a lot of people that were upset I did that.”
She admitted that she had received negative feedback for what she did and that her publicist had even requested that UNICEF not publish the photograph of her with the child.
We think she’s amazing!
