PARIS: L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, the world’s richest woman whose old age was clouded by dementia, has died at the age of 94, her family said on Thursday.

“Liliane Bettencourt died last night at home,” her daughter Francoise Betten­court Meyers said in a statement. “My mother left peacefully.” Betten­court, the cosmetics giant’s principal shareholder, was the 14th richest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine, which estimated her net worth in March at $39.5 billion.

She was rarely seen in public since leaving the L’Oreal board in 2012, but her name remained in the headlines as members of her entourage were charged with exploiting her failing mental health.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2017