Her relationship with her mother came to a tipping point when Bettencourt Meyers initiated a decadelong family feud over her inheritance.
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In the lawsuit, Bettencourt Meyers alleged that photographer François-Marie Banier used his friendship with Liliane Bettencourt to manipulate the elderly heiress into giving him some 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) of cash, art, and life insurance policies, The New York Times reported in 2009.
Bettencourt, who was diagnosed with dementia, disputed her daughter’s assertion and said she freely shared her assets with Banier.
In a 2008 letter to Banier, Bettencourt described their relationship to him, writing: “With you, I am like a mother, a lover, all the feelings pass through me. It makes me tremble,” according to Vanity Fair.
Bettencourt Meyers told a French news magazine in 2009 that Mr. Banier’s “objective is clear: break away my mother from our family to profit from her. I will not let it happen.”
The case went to trial in 2015. Bainer was convicted of “abus de faiblesse,” or “abuse of weakness.”
He was sentenced to two and half years in prison and told to pay Bettencourt 158 million euros in damages.
The jail sentence and payment were later reversed in an appeal.
In 2023, Netflix released a three-part documentary, “The Billionaire, The Butler, and The Boyfriend,” about the family drama.
