Salma Hayek has officially become a grandmother after her stepson welcomed his first child.
The “Frida” star, 59, announced the news via Instagram on Sunday, sharing a video of herself holding her newborn grandson. François Pinault Jr., 38, and his wife Lara Cosima Henckel von Donnersmarck, 23, welcomed their first child — a baby boy — earlier this month, marking the fourth living generation of the prominent French family.
“We are blessed to welcome the fourth living generation of Francois’,” Hayek captioned the clip, which showed her talking to the infant as he let out what sounded like a laugh. “Although I will call him Panchito. He seems to love it, and I cannot love him more.”
The nickname “Panchito” appears to be Hayek’s own term of endearment for the child, whose formal name continues a deep family tradition. The newborn has been named François, matching his father François Pinault Jr., his grandfather François-Henri Pinault, 64, and his great-grandfather François Pinault, the 89-year-old founder of the luxury conglomerate that became Kering.
Henckel von Donnersmarck had already introduced the baby to her Instagram followers days before Hayek’s post. On August 13, she shared a carousel of intimate family photos documenting their first month as parents, revealing the birth had taken place approximately a month prior.
“my husband (the world’s coolest françois) … and our son ( the world’s cutest françois) … our first month as parents,” she wrote alongside images that showed her beaming beside the newborn on a picnic blanket, cradling him, and watching Pinault Jr. Feed him a bottle and handle diaper duty.
The reference to Pinault Jr. As her “husband” came as a surprise to followers, as the couple had only announced their engagement in March after about a year of dating. The exact date of their wedding remains unclear, though the language in her post suggested they had quietly married sometime before the baby’s arrival.
Hayek’s relationship with her husband’s children from previous relationships has long been documented as warm and involved. She married François-Henri Pinault in 2009, and the couple share daughter Valentina Paloma Pinault, 18. Pinault is also father to Mathilde, 25, from his first marriage to Dorothée Lepère, and to Augustin James Evangelista, 19, from his relationship with supermodel Linda Evangelista.
The actress has previously spoken openly about her desire for a larger family and the complicated emotions that followed. In a 2017 interview with Red magazine, she addressed the matter directly.
“I’ve had that yearning, that longing, and that pain,” she said. “I always wanted to have a lot of children, and I was not able to. My body, as a miracle, had one.”
She added that her husband’s children from other relationships had become her own. “The huge blessing I’ve had is that my husband has three other children. So I have four. And they are all so different.”
That blended-family closeness has been visible in recent months. In June, Hayek attended Augustin’s high school graduation in New Jersey alongside Evangelista, posting a celebratory tribute to her stepson on Instagram. “Augie!!! We are so PROUD of you congratulations for becoming the extraordinary young man that you are and managing to still be our lovely boy,” she wrote at the time.
The arrival of baby François places Hayek in a new role just weeks before her 60th birthday on September 2. The Pinault family name now extends across four living generations in the male line, with the newborn representing the latest link in a dynasty that spans luxury fashion, art collecting, and major business holdings across Europe.
Henckel von Donnersmarck, the daughter of German filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and his wife Christiane Asschenfeldt, was born and raised in the United States and studied fashion design at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan. Her marriage to Pinault Jr. Unites two prominent European families — the Pinaults of France and the Henckel von Donnersmarcks, an Austro-Hungarian noble house.
Hayek’s Instagram video of herself with “Panchito” offered a rare glimpse into the family’s private world, with the actress cooing at the infant in a moment that appeared to capture genuine interaction. The baby’s responsive sound, interpreted by viewers as a laugh, became a focal point of the clip’s appeal as it circulated across social platforms.
The newborn’s arrival comes at a moment of transition for multiple members of the extended family. Augustin has just completed high school, Valentina is entering adulthood, and Hayek herself is approaching a milestone birthday while taking on the grandmother role she has long embraced informally through her husband’s older children.
Hayek will next appear on screen in “Without Blood,” a film she directed starring Demi Moore, which is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.