Liliane Bettencourt

Liliane Bettencourt is perhaps one of most talked about billionaire socialite in France. A proportion of that fame comes from her position as biggest shareholder in L'Oréal and one of biggest individual shareholder in Nestle, whereby rest comes from her innate ability to hit newspaper Headlines with one scandal after the other. Most notorious of them were her legal dispute with her daughter due to her favors to a young photographer and alleged charges of illegal donation to Nicolas Sarkozy. But despite all the bad publicity and issues, there are many unexplored aspects of her life which are by and large ignored by English language media. She is one of role models for rich in terms of her discipline and hard work. Even at this age of eighty plus she goes for long walks daily. Throughout her life she has maintained a rigorous routine which starts at 4 am and includes hours of exercise and activities including cycling, swimming, walking etc. She has also been a generous philanthropist and promotes science research through various scholarship through her trusts for which she was also awarded "La Légion d'honneur", the highest civilian decoration of France.