The Bettencourt Affair

The World's Richest Woman and the Scandal That Rocked Paris (t)

By: Tom Sancton

Narrated by: Amanda Carlin

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.

It picked up about halfway through

It picked up about halfway through. Before that I kept wondering why I had chosen to read/ listen to this title. Total rating, in spite of all the "critical raves" is meh.

An era that is no longer

Its astonishing this happened in this decade. Tragic. But well written and narrated. Its like slowing down to see the car crash. I hope these people find their happiness and goodness.

The things we do for money

If this was fiction people would say it is to farfetched
What I like about this book are several
One a deep appreciation for the U. S. Judicial system
Two the book gave you great detail from the beginning all the way up today.
My only complaint and it is no fault of author. Is the names are in French. I had hart time keeping people straight who was who.

love the French voice reading

This story is, of course, amazing....but the French voice reading it to me was spectacular!

Impossible to listen to.

This is a great story. The Vanity Fair piece was riveting. This voice is horrifying. You couldn’t get an actress who speaks French and narrates. Kristin Scott Thomas? It will take weeks to get through this.