Salma Hayek adorns “Sports Illustrated” cover: she almost canceled the shoot again

For actress Salma Hayek-Pinault (58), a large lifelong dream came true at the end of 50. The Mexican adorns one of the Mexican this year. Her younger I would never have expected such an honor, she revealed in an interview about her swimwear cover: “I still know when I was young, I was always very excited when I saw the Swimsuit edition. I always asked myself: ‘Who will be on the cover?’ At that time I didn’t see myself as a model at all – that’s why I never thought that one day I would be seen there myself. “

If someone had predicted that she would land on the cover at the age of 58, she would have sent the person to the madhouse, said Hayek-Pinaault on site at the photo shoot in her home country Mexico. There she was photographed on the beach of the Cuixmala luxury resort by Colombian photographer Ruven Afanador (65). “The world has changed and that’s exciting.” She finds it remarkable that it is now in order and cool for a magazine like “Sports Illustrated” to “be over 50 and still not only feel sexy, but also to be free and not to hide because of the body”.

Salma Hayek was a guest, among other things. There she revealed more about her experiences before and during the photo shoot.

When she received the call of the magazine, as her daughter would say – she got a real attack of “Imposter syndrome” (in German: Hochstapler syndrome), said Hayek. Even when she had already agreed, she wanted to take a back shortly before. She was afraid that the swimwear would not fit her. But then she sent her “Sports Illustrated” 200 models for fitting.

She tried about 100 of it in Los Angeles. “Many of them had to be changed,” said the actress in retrospect. “I took the suitcase to Mexico and guess what happened? You lost the suitcase,” she revealed about her greatest shock moment shortly before the photo shoot. Fortunately, the team had additional swimwear for the photo shoot on site. However, the loss of the suitcase led to the fact that she did not feel as safe on the set as hoped.

But then she experienced a special moment: in one of the first shots on the beach, she saw a whale behind her. “And suddenly I felt: This is magical. This is my country. I am 58 and do this here! My generation – especially the Mexican women – thought we would be forgotten at 35, you know?

Hayek-Pinault is one of four cover models of the 2025 edition, next to her is also the Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles (24), the influencer and gymnast Olivia Dunne (22) and the Plus-Size Model Lauren Chan.