Actress Salma Hayek is moving to London with her husband, François-Henri Pinault, the CEO of the luxury company Kering.
“François is very excited; he thinks London is very cosmopolitan. I think it will be good for my career too,” she said. Pinault will remain domiciled in France, where his business is headquartered, and so will continue to pay French taxes.
Hayek, reportedly keen on a position in the cast of hit period drama Downton Abbey, will use London as a base as she pursues more British roles.
The move also made sense for Pinault from a business perspective. London is the home of three Kering subsidiaries: Alexander McQueen, Steven Kane, and Stella McCartney.
The couple is already hard at work preparing for their new residence. “Finding the house has been so stressful. We are redecorating now. François and I are looking at lots of interiors magazines,” she said. The Sunday Times reports that they considered homes in the London neighborhoods of Notting Hill and Belgravia before final deciding to rent a house in Kensington.
Happy as they are about the move, Hayek and Pinault are less enthusiastic about the British school system. On meeting with school administrators in London for their young daughter, Valentina, Hayek says “They want to put her one year behind, because she was born in September, and I disagree with the system. As good as the schools are, if they don’t recognize how special my child is — she speaks three languages and understands five — then they’re not that good, are they?”