Françoise Bettencourt Meyers Biography
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers is a French businesswoman, philanthropist, author, pianist, and billionaire heiress, the world’s richest woman. Meyers and her family own approximately 33% of L’Oreal stock.
How old is Françoise Bettencourt Meyers? – Age
She is 69 years old as of 10 July 2022. She was born in 1953 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers Family
She is Liliane Bettencourt’s only child and the granddaughter of L’Oréal founder Eugène Schueller. Her mother died in September 2017, after which her fortune tripled thanks to her investments through her family holding company, Tethys Invest, and the stock exchange’s high valuation of L’Oréal shares.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers Husband
She married Jean-Pierre Meyers, the grandson of an Auschwitz rabbi, and raised their children Jean-Victor and Nicolas as Jews. Her marriage sparked controversy because her grandfather, L’Oreal’s founder, Eugène Schueller, was on trial for collaboration with the Nazi government
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers Career
Andre Bettencourt was a decorated French war hero who fought the Nazis for 20 years before becoming vice chairman of L’Oreal in 1994. In 2007, he passed away. Her mother, Liliane Bettencourt, started as an apprentice at the age of 15 and inherited her father’s stake in L’Oreal in 1957. She died in September of 2017.
She is also the president of the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, which has over $700 million in assets. She is currently one of the world’s wealthiest people, topping Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s wealthiest female billionaires. Bettencourt Meyers has an active academic career in addition to being the heiress of the world’s largest cosmetic company. She is a well-known author who has written books on Jewish-Christian relations as well as Greek mythology.
Her family became embroiled in an ugly controversy in 2008. Françoise Bettencourt Meyers sued François-Marie Banier, a French photographer, for defrauding her mother and stealing money from her. According to her, Liliane Bettencourt was in poor mental health, and Banier took advantage of her emotional vulnerability to dupe her into giving him money and gifts worth nearly a billion dollars. Among the gifts were a number of life insurance policies.
Liliane Bettencourt regarded Banier as a close friend, and was offended when Bettencourt Meyers sued him. As a result, the mother-daughter relationship deteriorated. Bettencourt Meyers reached an out-of-court settlement with both her mother and Banier following lengthy court proceedings.
How did Francoise Bettencourt Meyers get her wealth? – Net Worth
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, she was the world’s richest woman in January 2022, with an estimated fortune of $94.9 billion.
