For the second year in a row on Forbes’ list of the World’s Billionaires, the planet’s richest woman is L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers of France. Worth an estimated $74.8 billion, Bettencourt Meyers is an estimated $1.2 billion richer than a year ago, making her the fourteenth richest person in the world.

The 68-year-old French citizen is the vice chair of the board of L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics and beauty company, which her chemist grandfather Eugène Paul Louis Schueller founded in 1909. Bettencourt Meyers first landed on Forbes' billionaires list in 2018, after her mother, Liliane Bettencourt–then the planet’s richest woman–died in 2017 at the age of 94. In 2007, Bettencourt Meyers famously sued François-Marie Banier, a close friend of her mother’s, for allegedly siphoning more than $1 billion worth of gifts from the elderly woman. Banier was later sentenced to three years in jail and was ordered to reportedly pay back $16.5 million to Bettencourt and her family.

Bettencourt Meyers and her family own about 33% of L’Oréal’s stock. She has been a member of the company’s board since 1997. Her two sons, Jean-Victor Meyers and Nicolas Meyers, also sit on the board. As the world’s largest beauty manufacturer, L’Oréal owns more than 35 cosmetic, skincare and personal-care brands. Its lead portfolio companies include Maybelline, Garnier and NYX.

The Forbes World’s Billionaires list is a snapshot of wealth using stock prices and exchange rates from March 11, 2022. Some people become richer or poorer within days of publication. We list individuals rather than multigenerational families who share fortunes, though we include wealth belonging to a billionaire’s spouse and children if that person is the founder of the fortune. In some cases we list siblings or couples together if the ownership breakdown among them isn’t clear, but here an estimated net worth of $1 billion per person is needed to make the cut. We value a variety of assets, including private companies, real estate, art and more. We don’t pretend to know each billionaire’s private balance sheet (though some provide it). When documentation isn’t supplied or available, we discount fortunes. For daily updates of net worths, go to www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires.

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