Salma Hayek survived COVID-19 but felt awful: "I'd rather die at home"

Salma Hayek is usually very reserved when it comes to details of her life, but recently she opened up to talk about her experience with COVID-19. The actress revealed that her infection, at the beginning of the pandemic, made her very ill - to the point that she thought she was going to die.

She had faced this battle privately. Only those closest to her knew about it.

The Mexican actress told Variety magazine that she had in fact been very sick. She had to isolate herself from family and friends for almost two months. Only after that long period doctors were certain that she no longer had the virus.

"My doctor begged me to go to the hospital because I was very sick," she told Variety. "I said, 'No thanks. I'd rather die at home.'"

Salma spent about seven weeks isolated in a room in the London mansion that she shares with her husband, François-Henri Pinault, and their 13-year-old daughter Valentina.

As the actress later revealed, she'd needed extra oxygen to be able to breathe.

Although more than a year has passed since her illness, the actress says she does not have the same energy level that she had before.

Yet, she returned to work in April 2021 to film the movie 'House of Gucci.' It's directed by Ridley Scott and stars Lady Gaga.

In the film, Salma plays a clairvoyant who is persuaded to help Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) orchestrate the murder of her ex-husband in 1995. The man, played by Adam Driver, is Maurizio Gucci, an heir to the Gucci fashion empire.

“It was not a lot of time," the actress told Variety about the 'Gucci' gig. "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."

Although she never talked about having COVID-19 herself, Hayek always shared publications about the illness on her social  media. She wanted people to become aware of the seriousness of the pandemic and urged everyone to wear face masks.

"Although this weekend the weather is good and you are tempted to leave the house, do not forget to be responsible with your health and that of others," Salma wrote one day on Instagram, for example.

Recovered by now, the Mexican star continues with her life as far as her strength allows. She recently promoted the new movie 'Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard'. Other stars in the film are Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson.

'Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard' is a sequel to the 2017 film 'The Hitman's Bodyguard' in which the character of Sonia (Hayek) had appeared for only two minutes.

However, as the director told Variety, the character of Salma was significantly expanded for this new movie, because many people had told him they wanted to see more of Sonia.

As one of her upcoming projects, the actress announced that she hopes to film a script that she wrote 17 years ago.

“It’s a very personal project, and this is the right time. It couldn’t have gotten made two years ago or even last year," Salma Hayek explained to Variety. While not giving any details about the project, she says: "It’s very ambitious. It’s not a small film. I don't give up. I’ll get it made."

More about Salma Hayek: meet her lesser-known daughter, the socialite Mathilde Pinault