An NPR Best Book of 2017

Heiress to the nearly forty-billion-dollar L'Oréal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt was the world's richest woman and the fourteenth wealthiest person. But her gilded life took a dark yet fascinating turn in the past decade. At ninety-four, 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 characterdriven story of a complex, fascinating family and the intruder who nearly tore it apart.

• We started tracking this book on July 21, 2017.
• This book was $14.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 74 times in the past 2,705 days.
• The current price of this book is $1.99 last checked 51 minutes ago.
• The lowest price to date was $1.99 last reached on December 15, 2024.
• This book has been $1.99 3 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $14.99 last reached on July 21, 2017.
• This book has been $14.99 one time since we started tracking it.
• This book is currently at its lowest price since we started tracking it.

• History

• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 409 Pages
• File Size: 6,233 KB