Liliane Bettencourt

Liliane Henriette Charlotte Schueller, married name Bettencourt (French pronunciation: ​[lil.jan be.tɑ̃.kuːʁ]; born 21 October 1922), is a French heiress, socialite and businesswoman. She is one of the principal shareholders of L'Oréal and according to Forbes, she is the richest woman in the world, making her the 10th richest person in the world with a net worth of US$36.4 billion on "The World's Billionaires" list in 2015.

Biography

Bettencourt was born in Paris, France as the only child of Louise Madeleine Berthe (née Doncieux) and Eugène Schueller, the founder of L'Oréal, one of the world's largest cosmetics and beauty companies. Her mother died when Liliane was 5 years old, and she formed a close bond with her father, who later married Liliane's British governess. At the age of 15 she joined her father's company as an apprentice, mixing cosmetics and labelling bottles of shampoo.

In 1950 she married French politician André Bettencourt, who served as a cabinet minister in French governments of the 1960s and 1970s and rose to become deputy chairman of L'Oréal. Bettencourt had been a member of La Cagoule, a violent French fascist group that Liliane's father had funded and supported in the 1930s and that collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. After the war, her husband, like other members of La Cagoule, was given refuge at L'Oréal despite his politically inconvenient past. Eventually the Bettencourts settled in an Art Moderne mansion built in 1951 on rue de Delabordère in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. They had one daughter, Françoise, who was born on 10 July 1953.