Françoise Bettencourt Meyers

Raised to be a strict Catholic,[2] she has written several Bible commentaries.[3] She is the only daughter and heiress of Liliane Bettencourt. She married Jean-Pierre Meyers, the grandson of a rabbi murdered at Auschwitz, and they raised their children Jean-Victor and Nicolas as Jewish.[3] Her marriage caused controversy because of her grandfather Eugène Schueller's trial for collaboration with the Nazi government; he was L'Oreal's founder.[4] Bettencourt Meyers and her family still own a 33% stake in the company.[5][1]

In 2008, she sued François-Marie Banier for taking money from her mother,[4] and she started proceedings to have her mother declared mentally incompetent. The revelations in the secret recordings that she used in evidence led to the Woerth-Bettencourt scandal.

In December 2010, Bettencourt Meyers announced that she had settled out of court with both her mother and Banier.[6]

Her mother died in September 2017 when her net worth was about $39.5 billion, which makes Bettencourt Meyers among the top 20 richest people in the world.

After a fire severely damaged Notre-Dame de Paris, Bettencourt Meyers and L'Oréal pledged $226 million to repair the cathedral.[7]

As of December 2021, she was the richest woman in the world, with an estimated fortune of $94.3 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.[8] As of July 2021, she sustained the title with a net worth US$86.0 billion according to Bloomberg.[8]

• The Greek gods. Genealogy (Les Dieux grecs. Généalogies), Paris, éd.
• A look at the Bible (Regard sur la Bible), 5 vol., Introduction by Alain Decaux, Published, November 2008, awarded the prix des Lauriers Verts (section « Spirituality ») in 2009:
  • Words and expressions originating in the Bible
  • From one Testament to the other, Judaism and Catholicism
  • Family Tree of Adam Eve, and the Tribes of Israel
  • Animals, Plants, Measures, money, and numbers in the Bible
  • Genealogic section

• List of female billionaires