With a net worth of $ 73 billion, according to Forbes, it is the richest woman in the world: that’s who it is Françoise Bettencourt Meyers.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers: who is it?
In 2020, the scepter of richest woman in the world went to Alice Walton, heir to Wal-Mart supermarkets.
In 2021, Walton has to settle for second place in terms of achieving the record is Françoise Bettencourt Meyers at the head of the French cosmetics company L’Oréal. Third place went to MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos.
French by birth, he owes his fortune to his mother, Lilian Bettencourt, heir of the L’Oréal group founded by his father, Eugène Schueller.
Currently, the Bettencourt family owns 33% of the company’s shares. Since the death of her mother in 2017, together with her husband Jean-Pierre Meyers, lead the group.
Meyers has been part of L’Oréal’s management since 1997 and is president of the family holding. But not only that, he is also president of the philanthropic foundation of his family, which supports French progress in the sciences and the arts.
In 2020, the company’s earnings fell by 6%, due to the pandemic, which caused potential consumers to lose interest in make-up.
Despite that, the stock is increased by 38%, thanks to the request of skincare products and skin care.
Private life and curiosity
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers’ husband, Jean-Pierre Meyers, is the grandson of a rabbi killed in Auschwitz. Precisely for this reason, the couple’s children, Jean-Victor and Nicolas grew up as Jews.
In 2008, the heiress was at the center of a scandal, in fact she initiated proceedings to make declare the mother mentally incompetent. In the same year he sued the famous photographer François-Marie Banier for taking advantage of his mother’s insanity and consequently stealing € 1 billion from her through gifts and donations. For this reason Banier was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
In 2019, after the Notre-Dame cathedral fire, Meyers and the L’Oréal group donated $ 226 million to help with the repair.