Salma Hayek thought she might never find love

Salma Hayek, Marie Claire, May 2012

/ Marie Claire

(CBS News) Before meeting French retail magnate, Francois-Henri Pinault, actress Salma Hayek thought she might never find love.

The couple first got engaged in 2007 and wed two years later. And from the sound of it, Hayek is still smitten.

Read more: Salma Hayek to be knighted in France

"He's the best thing that ever happened to me and my work," the 45-year-old star told Marie Claire about her French husband with whom she has a 3-year-old daughter.

"I was trying to figure out how to have a child on my own. I came to terms with saying, '[Love] might not happen, and I have to be OK with that.' Then someone came along whom I never would have pictured or thought I would have wanted; he was completely out of my box. Even though I was not looking, I was present and I was open. I am the luckiest person I know."

Hayek has a busy film year ahead. She's starring in Oliver Stone's "Savages," with Blake Lively and John Travolta, along with "Here Comes the Boom," with Kevin James.

Hayek appears in the Marie Claire @ Work supplement, which hits newsstands April 17.