Let's Talk About Salma Hayek and Her Pet Owl, Which Attacks Her in the Night

Salma Hayek famously has a pet owl, Kering, which she named after the business where her husband, François-Henri Pinault, is chairman and CEO. In April, she and the owl were featured in People’s Most Beautiful issue, and as the story goes, Kering is a rescue Hayek persuaded François-Henri to bring into their home. It’s now in London with her, for some reason, and even sleeps in bed with Hayek when her husband’s away.

Oh, and it viciously mauls her feet in her sleep, as they resemble the mice that make up its primary diet.

Hayek stopped by The Ellen Show, which isn’t long for this world, to talk about her new movie, Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, and Kering. Actually, the majority of the interview was about Kering, as both Hayek and DeGeneres waited patiently for its on-screen debut.

Ellen had lots of questions for Hayek about Kering, mostly: What the hell? According to Hayek, Kering sleeps in the room with her. Meaning, all night long, there’s an unsupervised owl flapping and shitting all over the place. She even joked, probably under duress, that Kering is known to attack her in her sleep, believing her feet to be mice or maybe rats. Ellen quipped she must have “hairy toes,” to which Hayek responded that she now wears socks to bed.

It isn’t clear where Kering was at the start of the interview, but Hayek made it sound like somebody would go fetch the thing for her, considering it was Kering’s dinnertime. She also revealed that Harry Styles had once met Kering, in an encounter that ended in disaster. Apparently, Kering regurgitates the fur of its meals during digestion, and Styles was gifted a fresh new toupee of decomposed rat after Kering barfed in his hair.

When Kering did finally make its appearance on camera, it refused to cooperate. This is to be expected, as owls are wild creatures and not domesticated pets. I’m curious, though, on the specifics of human-bird relations, as Hayek said repeatedly how much Kering likes to “snuggle.” Do birds snuggle? I’m not sure. Hayek says they do—let’s believe her! She’s the one with the bloodthirsty bird of prey stalking her every night.