Unlike a typical female billionaire heiress, the current owner of L’Oreal has a very secretive lifestyle and does not care about the market.
Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, 70, is the grandson of L’Oreal cosmetics empire founder Eugene Schueller. She is the only child of Liliane Bettencourt, the “queen” of L’Oreal for decades. However, in the third life of Francoise, the billionaire woman chose a very different lifestyle, not participating too much in business activities but enjoying living life as she wanted.
Francoise Bettencourt Meyers is currently the richest woman on the planet with a fortune of $82.5 billion (according to Forbes’ January 2023 statistics) and the 14th richest billionaire in the world.
The only heir to the cosmetics empire
Bettencourt Meyers’ mother, Liliane Bettencourt, inherited all of Schueller’s fortune in 1957 as an only child. Francoise’s father André Bettencourt was a French politician who served as a minister and senator in the government.
At that time, the Bettencourts were famous in French society for their lavish parties. However, Francoise never indulged in the flashy lifestyle like her parents. From an early age, she was described as enjoying playing the piano alone or writing.
Despite being the only one who could inherit L’Oreal as an adult, Francoise showed no interest in the market from the start. Francoise chose to focus on her career as an author. The Heiress wrote books on topics ranging from Greek mythology to the relationship between Jews and Christianity. In 2020, she also published a book on hearing disease.
Francoise Bettencourt Meyers participates in a book signing in 2011
Francoise Bettencourt Meyers has long been on the board of directors of L’Oreal – a group in which she holds about a third of the shares. However, the female billionaire is said to be not involved in the business and has too much influence in the operation of the cosmetics empire.
The battle against the mother
Despite being the only daughter, the mother-daughter relationship of the late billionaire Liliane Bettencourt and Francoise Bettencourt Meyers has not been so harmonious since she was a teenager. Liliane once gave an interview describing her daughter as a “heavy and slow person”, even using the word “cold child”.
The relationship of the billionaire mother and daughter culminated when Francoise began a decades-long “family war” over inheritance. This scandal was called the “Bettencourt affair” by the media and ended only when the mother died.
The source of the dispute is Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, who alleges that her mother’s close friend, photographer Francois-Marie Banier, used affection to manipulate her elderly mother into handing him cash, artwork. technology and real estate worth about $1.86 billion.
Francoise filed a Criminal Complaint against Banier in December 2007. Meanwhile, Liliane Bettencourt denied her daughter’s claim, saying she volunteered and wished to share her property with Banier. The richest female billionaire on the planet currently insists that Banier deliberately manipulated psychology, separating her mother from her family to make money from her.
Francoise Bettencourt Meyers has added nine other defendants to the case after a massive investigation that included then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
L’Oreal’s mother and daughter have an extremely tense relationship
It is reported that Liliane suffers from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and many people in her close circle have taken advantage of this disease to profit. The case was finally brought to trial and in 2015. Francois-Marie Bainer was convicted, along with seven other defendants, of abusing the weakness of others to commit fraud.
However, the mother-daughter relationship between the two female billionaires has ended. The two never spoke after Francoise filed a Criminal complaint in 2009.
“I don’t want and don’t see my daughter anymore,” Liliane said in a 2008 interview.
In 2011, Bettencourt was placed in the custody of her family due to concerns about her declining mental health. In 2017, she passed away, leaving tens of billions of dollars to the daughter she passed away.
Although not too keen on the business world, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers is still considered the owner and largest shareholder of L’Oreal. Both her husband – Jean-Pierre Meyers and 2 sons are involved in running the group. Currently, the billionaire’s family controls 33% of L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics manufacturer.