Liliane Bettencourt, whose family is the owner and founder of L’Oreal, a French cosmetics company and dubbed as the world’s richest woman, died at the age of 94.
In a statement released by her daughter, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, she said: “Liliane Bettencourt died last night at home.” “My mother left peacefully.”
Liliane Bettencourt, the principal shareholder of the cosmetic conglomerate, was the 14th richest person in the world based on the list released earlier by Forbes Magazine.
According to Forbes, Bettencourt had an estimated net worth of $39.5 billion.
It was in 2012 when she left the L’Oreal board, but her name remained in the headlines of the news stream after several members of the board were charged with apparently exploiting her condition.
In 2011, she was declared unfit to run her own affairs. This was after her medical report revealed that she had suffered from “mixed dementia” and “moderately severe” Alzheimer’s disease since 2006.
In a report published by Manila Bulletin, Bettencourt’s case resulted in a feud between her and her only daughter, friends and even dragged the name of Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president of France.
Wealth manager Patrice de Maistre was accused of getting Bettencourt to hand over envelopes of cash to the right-wing UMP party in the presidential campaign of Sarkozy in 2007.
But due to lack of evidence against Sarkozy, the charges were dropped in October 2013.