Salma Hayek says her greatest achievement in life has been watching her children grow up and become independent

Salma insists seeing them all grow into fine young adults has made the decisions in her career - which saw her turn down many roles to ensure she was a present parent - to make her family her "priority" completely worthwhile.

Speaking to Italian publication IO Donna, she said: "All my children, not just Valentina, now they are all independent and I am happy about it. I have invested a lot of time in it. My family has always been a priority. You can see it in my career, in the last 18 years I have only chosen roles shot mostly in the summer and in Europe.

"I did not have to sacrifice anything, but only organise myself better."

Salma now has more time for work now her daughter is 18 and she is as motivated as ever to continue to create new shows and films for Latin audiences via her own independent production company Ventanarosa, which provided viewers with hit series 'Ugly Betty'.

She said: "I'm aware there is still so much to do. The certainty that every story I tell, every project I realise, can make a difference for someone else.

"I'm not interested in letting others know what I do for others, I am interested in just doing it. Change does not need advertising, it needs action. This has always guided me in life.

"I basically work day and night. During the day I give interviews, I do shootings or I have various meetings with the foundations I collaborate with; at night I am locked in the office with my production company because on the other side of the ocean it's daytime.

"Our latest project is a television adaptation of the popular 1989 novel 'Like Water for Chocolate' by Laura Esquivel: it took us six years to complete and when we consider that there are 600 million Spanish speakers in the world, it is easy to see the potential."