Her relationship with her mother came to a tipping point when Bettencourt Meyers initiated a decade-long family feud over her inheritance. Getty ImagesIn 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 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. 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. He was sentenced to two and half years in prison and told to pay Bettencourt 158 million euros million in damages.

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Persons: Bettencourt Meyers, François, Marie Banier, Liliane Bettencourt, Bettencourt, Banier, Bainer Organizations: New York Times, Banier