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Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, the 70-year-old granddaughter of L’Oreal founder Eugène Schueller, is the richest girl on the planet, in accordance with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Bettencourt Meyers is value nearly $88 billion, principally on account of her stake in L’Oreal. She’s in thirteenth place on the Bloomberg checklist and has turn into $16 billion higher off this yr.
This is a take a look at her life and wealth.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, 70, is the granddaughter of L’Oreal founder Eugène Schueller.
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Schueller, a pharmacist, based the corporate that was to turn into L’Oreal in 1909.
His daughter and Bettencourt Meyers’ mom, Liliane, inherited Schueller’s fortune and management of the corporate upon his demise in 1957.
Alongside along with her husband, André Bettencourt, a French politician, the Bettencourts had been well-known in France for his or her glamorous events.
However Bettencourt Meyers was much less within the socialite way of life of her mother and father, preferring to remain in and play the piano or learn, Vainness Truthful reported.
Bettencourt Meyers had a fraught relationship along with her mom.
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The mother-daughter relationship was strained since Bettencourt Meyers was a teen.
“Françoise was heavy and gradual,” Bettencourt as soon as stated, per Vainness Truthful. “At all times one lap behind me.”
Bettencourt additionally known as Françoise “a chilly youngster” in an interview with a French newspaper, per The New York Occasions.
As an grownup, Bettencourt Meyers selected to concentrate on her profession as an writer.
ALAIN JOCARD/AFP through Getty Photographs through BI
The heiress has written books on subjects starting from Greek mythology to Judaism and Catholicism.
Her most up-to-date guide, a Biblical commentary entitled “Regard sur la Bible,” was printed in 2008, in accordance with its Amazon web page.
Bettencourt Meyers additionally sits on L’Oreal’s board and chairs the household’s holding firm.
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Bettencourt Meyers has a 33% stake in L’Oreal and is a board member.
Her relationship along with her mom got here to a tipping level when Bettencourt Meyers initiated a decade-long household feud over her inheritance.
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Within the lawsuit, Bettencourt Meyers alleged that photographer François-Marie Banier used his friendship with Liliane Bettencourt to govern the aged heiress into giving him some 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) of money, artwork, and life insurance coverage insurance policies, The New York Occasions reported.
Bettencourt, who was recognized with dementia, disputed her daughter’s assertion, stated she freely shared her property with Banier.
In a 2008 letter to Banier, Bettencourt described their relationship to him writing: “With you, I’m like a mom, a lover, all the emotions move by means of me. It makes me tremble,” in accordance with Vainness Truthful.
Bettencourt Meyers informed a French information journal in 2009 that Mr. Banier’s “goal is obvious: break free my mom from our household to revenue from her. I cannot let it occur.”
The case went to trial in 2015. Bainer was convicted of “abus de faiblesse,” or “abuse of weak point.”
He was sentenced to 2 and half years in jail and informed to pay Bettencourt 158 million euros million in damages.
The jail sentence and fee had been later reversed in an enchantment.
The pair weren’t on talking phrases after Bettencourt Meyers filed the felony grievance in 2009.
Liliane Bettencourt and Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers. Thibault Camus/AP through BI
“I do not see my daughter anymore and I do not want to,” Bettencourt stated in a 2008 interview, in accordance with Vainness Truthful. “For me, my daughter has turn into one thing inert.”
A lawyer concerned within the case informed Vainness Truthful: “The mom massacred the daughter, then the daughter massacred the mom.”
In 2011, Bettencourt was positioned beneath the guardianship of her household on account of issues over her declining psychological well being.
The lawsuit additionally drudged up long-forgotten household secrets and techniques, together with hypothesis that Bettencourt Meyer’s father Andre and her grandfather had been Nazi sympathizers.
Andre Bettencourt and Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers in 1988. James Andanson/Getty Photographs through BI
Bettencourt Meyers’ grandfather, Eugene Schueller, had publicly counseled Adolf Hitler’s “dynamism” within the early years of Nazi Germany and was investigated as a Nazi collaborator after World Warfare II ended, Insider’s Áine Cain reported.
Schueller was additionally a member of a secret society that plotted to overthrow France’s republican authorities within the Nineteen Thirties, Insider reported. The group, which was linked to a number of murders and bombings, was bankrolled by Schueller who hosted its conferences at L’Oréal’s headquarters.
André Bettencourt, Bettencourt Meyers’ father, wrote anti-Semitic diatribes for the pro-German press throughout the struggle, in accordance with Time, although he switched his allegiances and joined the Resistance. He was later adorned for his navy service throughout World Warfare II and went on to serve within the French authorities.
Although she was on the successful facet of the lawsuit, Bettencourt Meyers was later investigated for allegations of bribing a witness.
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The investigation stemmed from a felony grievance filed by Bainer in 2015, in accordance with Vainness Truthful. On the time, Bettencourt Meyers stated the fee she made to the witness was half severance fee, half private mortgage, and never a bribe for the testimony.
That go well with and Bettencourt Meyers’ countersuit towards Bainer had been resolved in a secret plea deal in 2016, Vainness Truthful reported.
Bettencourt Meyers inherited tens of billions of {dollars} when her mom died in 2017, and useful property like this mansion within the suburbs of Paris …
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The home is situated in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a rich suburb west of Paris. Neuilly-sur-Seine is understood in France as “energy suburb, a spot not solely of wealth however affect,” in accordance with The Unbiased. It is also house to actors Christian Clavier, Thierry Lhermitte, Gerard Jugnot, and politician Marine Le Pen.
The Artwork deco mansion and is the place Bettencourt spent her ultimate days, Time reported.
… and this mansion overlooking France’s Brittany coast.
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The mansion was one in all Bettencourt’s childhood houses, The New York Occasions reported.
Bettencourt Meyers lived on this close by house.
Boris Horvat/AFP/Getty Photographs
French police searched this house in 2010 as part of the investigations surrounding the Bettencourt affair, Bloomberg reported on the time.
Bettencourt Meyers lived there along with her husband Jean-Pierre Meyers.
Jean-Victor Meyers, Nicolas Meyers, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers and her husband Jean-Pierre Meyers in 2019. Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Photographs for Basis L’Oreal through BI
Jean-Pierre Meyers is CEO of French spirits producer Tethys SAS, and can also be on the board of Nestle.
The couple has two grownup sons, Jean-Victor and Nicolas. Jean-Victor is on L’Oreal’s board of administrators together with Bettencourt Meyers.
Within the years because the controversy involving her household, Bettencourt Meyers’ fortune has grown exponentially.
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Bettencourt Meyers is value $87.8 billion, Bloomberg estimates, making her the world’s wealthiest girl and the thirteenth richest individual.
She and her household management 33% of L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics maker. L’Oréal shares had been up 29% within the first half of 2023, in accordance with Forbes.
The corporate owns mass-market manufacturers like Maybelline, Essie, Garnier, and, after all, L’Oréal, in addition to high-end magnificence firms like City Decay, Lancôme, and Kiehl’s. L’Oréal additionally licenses the wonder divisions of luxurious trend homes together with Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino.
Bettencourt Meyers is not the one French billionaire on the wealthy checklist. LVMH chief Bernard Arnault grew to become the world’s wealthiest individual in December 2022 however relinquished the crown to Elon Musk in June. Arnault is value $175 billion, per Bloomberg, whereas Musk is value $249 billion.
The general wealth of French firm founders and heirs has jumped by $93 billion in 2023 alone, studies Bloomberg.
Bettencourt Meyers has devoted a few of her billions to philanthropy.
Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers. Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Photographs through BI
Bettencourt Meyers hasn’t stored all her cash to herself. In April 2019 she was amongst French billionaires who pledged hundreds of thousands after Notre Dame Cathedral caught hearth, Insider reported.
Bettencourt Meyers can also be the president of the Bettencourt Schueller Basis, the charity she cofounded within the Eighties. It points grants to assist analysis within the life sciences and humanities tasks, in accordance with its web site.