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Salma Hayek says she nearly died from secret COVID-19 battle

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 5/19/21

At certain points over the last year, Salma Hayek didn't think she'd see another day—much less grace the new cover of Variety.

The 54-year-old actress revealed in the cover story by Marc Malkin that she battled a near-fatal case of COVID-19 "in the early days of the pandemic."

"My doctor begged me to go to the hospital because it was so bad," Hayek told Malkin over Zoom from her London home. "I said, 'No, thank you. I'd rather die at home.'"

Malkin added: "Hayek spent about seven weeks isolated in a room of the house. At one point, she was put on oxygen. She still hasn’t fully regained the energy she once had."

Luckily, Hayek is healed enough to return to work. The Oscar nominee flew to Italy in April to film House of Gucci, a dramatization of the real-life crime story chronicling "how Patrizia Reggiani, the ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci, plotted to kill her husband, the grandson of renowned fashion designer Guccio Gucci" (h/t IMDb).

The film is directed by Ridley Scott and features a star-studded cast, though the Gucci family has publicly denounced it.

Salma Hayek, who plays a clairvoyant that helped Patrizia Reggiani orchestrate the killing of Maurizio Gucci, says joining #HouseOfGucci alongside Lady Gaga and Adam Driver after recovering from COVID “was the perfect job to just get back into it” https://t.co/hVtwKUhiK1 pic.twitter.com/xYdHfiuWY9
— Variety (@Variety) May 19, 2021

Salma Hayek rocks red hair on the set of #HouseOfGucci with Lady Gaga https://t.co/9k5aZXqRe9
— JustJared.com (@JustJared) April 22, 2021

House of Gucci will be Hayek's fourth 2021 role when it arrives Nov. 24. The wife and mother of one is also in Bliss (released in February), The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (due June 16) and Marvel's Eternals (due Nov. 5). The latter is directed by record-breaking Oscar winner Chloé Zhao.

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