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The Bettencourt Affair
- The World's Richest Woman and the Scandal That Rocked Paris
- Narrated by: Amanda Carlin
- Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins
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Publisher's Summary
Heiress to the nearly 40-billion-dollar L’Oréal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt was the world’s richest woman and the 14th wealthiest person. But her gilded life took a dark yet fascinating turn in the past decade. At 94, she was embroiled in what has been called the Bettencourt Affair, a scandal that dominated the headlines in France. Why? It’s a tangled web of hidden secrets, divided loyalties, frayed relationships, and fractured families, set in the most romantic city - and involving the most glamorous industry - in the world.
The Bettencourt Affair started as a family drama but quickly became a massive scandal, uncovering L’Oréal’s shadowy corporate history and buried World War II secrets. From the Right Bank mansions to the Left Bank artist havens; and from the Bettencourts’ servant quarters to the office of President Nicolas Sarkozy; all of Paris was shaken by the blockbuster case, the shocking reversals, and the surprising final victim.
It all began when Liliane met François-Marie Banier, an artist and photographer who was, in his youth, the toast of Paris and a protégé of Salvador Dalí. Over the next two decades, Banier was given hundreds of millions of dollars in gifts, cash, and insurance policies by Liliane. What, exactly, was their relationship? It wasn’t clear, least of all to Liliane’s daughter and only child, Françoise, who became suspicious of Banier’s motives and filed a lawsuit against him. But Banier has a far different story to tell...
The Bettencourt Affair is part courtroom drama; part upstairs-downstairs tale; and part character-driven story of a complex, fascinating family, and the intruder who nearly tore it apart.
Critic Reviews
An NPR Best Book of 2017
"Juicy...the very picture of un grand scandale about the world’s richest woman." (Vanity Fair)
"Liliane Bettencourt, the L’Oréal heiress worth billions, became infatuated with a man 25 years her junior (a former Dalí protégé and an apparent social climber), giving him lavish gifts and even moving to adopt him. The story has all the trappings of a juicy affair, including graft and hidden Nazi sympathies." (Joumana Khatib, The New York Times Book Review Paperback Row)
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- Robyn
- 16-01-2023
(Morbidly) Fascinating
This is a fact-filled very impressive detective story which covers the L’Oréal saga from its humble origins to unimaginable riches and the damaging series of lawsuits which saw the skeletons and secrets of the Bettencourts exposed to public view. The book is interesting and at times amazing as it recounts a tale of what can happen when too much money is never enough and anyone who's anyone turns up to get a share of the millions which are seemingly available to anyone charming or convincing enough to get a slice. Amanda Carlin is competent in French and does an excellent job.
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- IAN
- 28-11-2021
Extraordinary story.
Recommended, a story of friendship and largess, it’s hard to judge who is the villain except for the politicians and their cohorts.
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