Françoise Bettencourt was born on the 10th July 1953, in Neuilly-sur-Siene, France and is now the presumptive heiress of L’Oréal, the world’s leading company in cosmetics and other beauty products, since the passing of her mother Liliane in September 2017. She is also an author of Bible commentaries, and works on Jewish-Christian relations.
Have you ever wondered how rich Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers is, as of late 2017? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that Bettencourt-Meyers wealth is as high as $42.3 billion, largely as the result of her inheritance of L’Oréal. This places her as very likely the richest woman in the world.
Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers Net Worth $42.3 Billion
Françoise is the daughter of Liliane Bettencourt and her husband André Bettencourt. Liliane’s father and Françoise’s grandfather was Eugène Schueller, founder of L’Oréal. Her mother inherited the company, which has remained 33% in family’s ownership until the present day. With Liliane’s passing, Françoise became athe sole heir of the vast L’Oréal fortune. Her father, André, passed away in 2007, after which her mother started losing her mind, but it took years of legal arguments in court for Françoise to prove that her mother wasn’t fit to run the family company.
Liliane was the victim of French photographer, writer, and artist François-Marie Banier, who used her ill health for extracting money from her. Until the scheme was discovered, Banier took away more than $1 billion from Françoise’s mother. The case was finally settled in December 2010 out of court, but Banier received a three-year sentence for his wrongdoings.
Aside from now managing a world-renowned business worth well over $10 billion, Françoise is a well-respected author. Back in 1994, she published her first book “The Greek Gods Genealogy”, while in 2008 she published a five-volume book “A Look at the Bible”, comprised of “Words and expressions originating in the Bible“, “From one Testament to the other, Judaism and Catholicism“, “Family Tree of Adam Eve, and Tribes of Israel”, “Animals, Plants, Measures, money, and numbers in the Bible”, and “Genealogic section”, the sales of which also added to her net worth long before her inheritance came to pass.
Regarding her personal life, Françoise has been married to Jean-Pierre Meyers, hence her last name of Meyers. The couple has two children together. Jean-Pierre Meyers is the grandson of a rabbi who was murdered at Auschwitz; this brought some controversy to Bettencourt family, since Françoise’s grandfather, Eugène – a fascist even before World War 2 – stood trial for collaborating with the Nazi government, plus the fact that Françoise was raised under strict Catholic beliefs. However, Francoise subsequently chose to raise her children as Jewish.
The whole Bettencourt family is known for philanthropy, so is Françoise; she is the head of the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, which helps numerous causes.
