The star was 41-years-old when she gave birth to little Valentina - her daughter with French husband Francois-Henri Pinault - in September, 2007, and the Mexican beauty confesses she almost bowed out of the industry to become a full-time mum because she assumed her acting days were numbered because of her age.
"I think if you are young and you have children, you still have so much to prove. When you have children later in life, you lose a bit of that urge for working," Hayek has told Marie Claire magazine.
"At the time, I was thinking, I can do another movie that may or may not work, or I can be with my child, nourish her, and not miss a moment of this precious time. And if my career is going to end in two years, what's the difference, anyway?" she said.
Hayek credits Pinault with inspiring her to get back to business, adding, "He told me, 'You feel like this right now, but when Valentina grows a little older, you are going to want to go back, and it might be too late. You are so smart, so talented. You have so much more potential. Don't you want to see where it will take you?'
"I was always trying to make people believe in me, and then I found someone who believed in me more than I believed in myself," Hayek said.
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