The little-known world’s richest woman has a net worth of $92.6 billion
- Françoise Bettencourt Meyers is the world’s richest woman
- While you may not have heard of her, she’s worth $92.6 billion
- She inherited a one-third stake in L’Oréal
Published on Nov 21, 2023 at 9:29 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on Nov 29, 2023 at 7:16 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Elon Musk is never out of the headlines – but did you know who the world’s richest woman is?
Introducing Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, the world’s richest woman.
According to Forbes she’s worth a massive $92.6 billion.
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But how did the world’s richest woman come to be so?
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon from his garage, Taylor Swift did the Era’s Tour and Bernard Arnault was CEO of fashion powerhouse LVMH.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, however, became the world’s richest woman as a nepo baby.
She inherited a one-third stake in L’Oréal and tens of billions of dollars from her mother when she died in 2017.
And her wealth has only continued to grow since then.
In the first half of this year alone, L’Oréal shares spiked by 29%, per Forbes.
It houses brands including Maybelline, Garnier, Lancôme.
That’s in addition to beauty divisions of luxury fashion houses including Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino.
This is despite her fraught relationship with her mother, a bitter lawsuit over inheritance and allegations of her family being Nazi sympathizers.
And the founding of the empire is, in fact, two generations removed.
The 70 year old is the granddaughter of L’Oréal’s founder, Eugène Schueller.
Schueller was originally a pharmacist who founded L’Oréal in 1909.
But, despite being an heiress, Bettencourt Meyers was less interested in a socialite lifestyle, per Vanity Fair.
In spite of her inherited wealth, Bettencourt Meyers focused on her career as an author.
However, she hasn’t turned her back on the family business entirely.
She sits on L’Oreal’s board and chairs the family’s holding company with a 33% stake in the brand.
As well as her mother’s billions she also inherited some valuable assets – including a mansion.
The art deco mansion is located in the wealthy Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.
Bettencourt Meyers has also dedicated some of her billions to philanthropy.
As well as pledging millions after Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire, she is president of the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation.
The charity she co-founded in the 1980s issues grants to support research in the life sciences and arts projects.
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All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
