![Liliane Bettencourt, L'Oreal Heiress And World's Richest Woman, Dies [Image via Youtube: Inside Edition]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/9/22/660x290/b_502x220x82/liliane-bettencourt-loreal-heiress-and-worlds-richest-woman-dies-image-via-youtube-inside-edition_1587199.jpg "Liliane Bettencourt, L'Oreal Heiress And World's Richest Woman, Dies [Image via Youtube: Inside Edition]")
Late Thursday, Lillian Bettencourt, daughter of French chemist Eugene Schuller, who founded the world-famous cosmetics company L'Oréal in 1909, died one month before the 95th anniversary, according to CNN. Her daughter confirmed Lillian's death and said that she died at home "peacefully" overnight.
Lillian Bettencourt amassed a fortune of $39.5 billion and owned 33 percent of the perfume and cosmetic giant. She was the richest woman in the world and ranked 14th among the richest people in the world, according to Forbes.
Life of the world richest woman
Bettencourt was born in Paris on October 21, 1922. She started working in her father's company when she was only 15. Lillian's mother died when she was 5, and her father did not marry again, so the daughter was his only family. Eugene Schuller created the first popular hair dye and patented it in the beginning of the twentieth century. Lillian Bettencourt was married to the French politician Andre Bettencourt (died in 2007).
Lilian's daughter Francoise Meyers-Bettencourt filed a lawsuit against the people nursing her mother, as she had dementia. The court ordered to put the heiress under the guardianship of family members. Since 2011, Francoise Meyers-Bettencourt had been taking care of her mother.
The court decision came after the scandal in 2009 when Lillian gave a billion dollar to her friend, photographer François Marie Banier. She managed to prove that her mother was sick. The photographer paid a fine of $400,000, returned assets worth $90 million, and an additional amount of $170 million.
What will be with the company?
L`Oreal is an abbreviation for two French words l'or (gold) and aureole (halo). In 2004, Bettencourt and L'Oreal's second-biggest shareholder Nestle made a deal that it would not increase its stake in the company during her lifetime, and for half a year after her death. The agreement was set to secure the Bettencourts influence over L'Oreal, and it will be over on March 21, 2018.
Nestle got its first stake in L'Oreal in 1974. On Friday, shares in L'Oreal increased up to 4% on condition of focused attention on managing the stakes between the Bettencourt family and Nestle. Nestle refused to comment on the situation.
Lillian Bettencourt left the company's board in 2012. After her death, L'Oreal corporation chairman and CEO Jean-Paul Agon said: "She personally contributed a lot to its success for very many years. A great woman of beauty has left us, and we will never forget her."
