L’Oreal heiress loses control of €14.5bn fortune

FRANCE’S richest woman, the cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt, was ordered to be placed under the legal protection of relatives by a French court yesterday in the latest twist in a family drama worthy of television’s Dallas or Dynasty.

Lawyers for the L’Oreal heiress said a judge ordered the 88-year-old French billionaire and her fortune be placed under the legal protection of her daughter and grandsons.

Bettencourt lawyer Jean-Rene Farthouat called the decision by a judge in the western Paris suburb of Courbevoie “profoundly disappointing”.