Liliane Bettencourt was a board member and one of the principal shareholders of L'Oreal.
18 Facts About Liliane Bettencourt
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Liliane Bettencourt was born Liliane Henriette Charlotte Schueller on 21 October 1922 in Paris, the only child of Louise Madeleine Berthe and Eugene Schueller, the founder of L'Oreal, one of the world's largest cosmetics and beauty companies.
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When Liliane was five years old, her mother died, and she formed a close bond with her father, who later married Liliane's British governess.
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In 1950, she married French politician Andre Liliane Bettencourt, who served as a cabinet minister in French governments of the 1960s and 1970s and rose to become deputy chairman of L'Oreal.
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Mr Bettencourt had been a member of La Cagoule, a violent French fascist pro-Nazi group that Liliane's father, a Nazi sympathizer, had funded and supported in the 1930s and whose members were arrested in 1937.
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In 1957, Liliane Bettencourt inherited the L'Oreal fortune when her father died, becoming the principal shareholder.
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In 1963, the company went public, although Liliane Bettencourt continued to own a majority stake.
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Liliane Bettencourt ended her board director tenure on 13 February 2012 and her grandson, Jean-Victor, was appointed as board director.
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Conversely, in 2007 Liliane Bettencourt was jointly "awarded" a Black Planet Award, an award given for destroying the planet, along with Peter Brabeck-Letmathe for proliferating contaminated baby food, monopolising water resources, and tolerating child labour.
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Liliane Bettencourt had an art collection that was said to include Matisse, Picasso, Fernand Leger, Derain, Soutine, Mondrian and Ruhlmann furniture.
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The life insurance policies were allegedly signed over to Banier after Liliane Bettencourt was recovering from two hospital stays in 2003 and 2006.
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The tapes, which were turned over to police, consisted of over 21 hours of conversation and were made because the butler had feared that Liliane Bettencourt was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and was being duped.
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The tapes allegedly reveal that Liliane Bettencourt had made Banier her "sole heir", excluding the L'Oreal shares which make up the bulk of Liliane Bettencourt's estate and which had already been signed over to her daughter and two grandsons.
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On 6 December 2010, Liliane Bettencourt reconciled with her daughter, ending a series of lawsuits.
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The spat reignited over the following summer when Liliane Bettencourt said her daughter needed to seek psychological help, which renewed their estrangement.
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On 17 October 2011, a French judge ruled that she was to be placed under the guardianship of members of her family on concerns about Liliane Bettencourt's declining mental health.
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Liliane Bettencourt was the first investor in a fund managed by Access International Advisors, which was co-founded by Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet.
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Liliane Bettencourt made, then retracted, a claim that Sarkozy was a frequent visitor to the Bettencourt's home while he was mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine from 1983 to 2002 and received envelopes containing cash.