`Golden` Ladies: What the World`s 13 Richest Women Look Like

According to Forbes statistics from 2023, there are 337 female billionaires in the world. And with each passing year, the number of wealthy women only grows. According to the same publication, approximately 13% of all billionaires are women. Some of them have inherited their impressive fortune from their husbands, while others can be confidently classified as self-made women. About the richest ladies on the planet — in our material.

Susanne Klatten

Susanne Klatten, with 23 billion euros, is the richest woman in Germany. She owns about one-fifth of the shares in Bayerische Motoren Werke, the German luxury car manufacturer. The company's brands include BMW, Mini, and Rolls-Royce. Suzanne also holds stakes in several other successful organizations.

According to Klatten, she and her relatives strictly follow two golden rules: first, the business must constantly grow and develop, and second, the company must always stay in the family.

Iris Fontbona

Iris Fontbona, with her $24 billion, is considered the richest person in Chile and the third richest in Latin America. She and her three sons inherited Antofagasta PLC, one of the largest mining companies in the world, from her late husband, Andrónico Luksic Abaroa.

Iris and her heirs not only successfully continued Abaroa's work, but also elevated the business to a new level, ensuring a prosperous future for themselves and several generations of their family.

Elaine Marshall

American Elaine Marshall and her two sons own 16% of the diversified conglomerate Koch Industries. This private company deals with oil refining, investments, chemical production, and more. She inherited her share from her husband, Everett Pierce Marshall, who passed away in 2006. Overall, the widow currently possesses over $25 billion.

Elaine's father-in-law, James Howard Marshall II, was one of the early partners of the company's founder, Fred Koch. Many know James for his brief marriage to model Anna Nicole Smith, who was 62 years younger than him.

Abigail Johnson

Abigail Johnson, along with her family, controls Fidelity Investments, one of the four largest asset management companies in the world. Her grandfather founded the firm in 1946.

Abby first worked at Fidelity during her college summer breaks. After earning her MBA from Harvard, she joined the company full-time as an analyst. Today, in her 60s, she serves as the president of Fidelity and has an impressive net worth of nearly $30 billion.

Miriam Adelson

Miriam Adelson was born in Israel to a Jewish family who fled Poland before World War II. Miriam earned a Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology and genetics and initially worked as a chief internist at a Tel Aviv hospital. After divorcing her first husband, Adelson retrained as an addiction specialist. In 1993, she founded a center for addiction treatment and a research clinic.

Her second husband, American entrepreneur Sheldon Adelson, helped her open the hospital. This business was especially important to him, as both of his sons had substance abuse issues, and one of them died from a heroin overdose in the mid-2000s.

Miriam's husband was the founder and CEO of the gambling business Las Vegas Sands, a major casino network in the USA, Singapore, and Macau. After his death in 2021, Adelson inherited more than half of his empire and $30 billion.

Gina Rinehart

Next on our list is the richest woman in Australia, Gina Rinehart, with a net worth of $30.8 billion. Gina built her fortune in iron ore. In the 90s, she reorganized her father’s mining company, Hancock Prospecting, which was near bankruptcy. Her wise decisions quickly paid off, making her a wealthy and prudent leader.

Minerals and mines are not Rinehart's only interests. The businesswoman owns several large cattle stations in Australia, helps children in Cambodia, and actively fights against human trafficking.

MacKenzie Scott

MacKenzie Scott is a philanthropist, writer, and the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos , with whom she was married for a quarter of a century. After their divorce in 2019, MacKenzie received 25% of her ex-husband's shares in the online retailer.

This is fair, as Scott was one of the first key figures at Amazon. She played an active role in creating the company, working on its name, business plan, accounts, and order deliveries. She also secured the first freight contract. After six years of hard work, MacKenzie left her position at Amazon to focus on writing and her family: the former couple has three sons and one adopted daughter.

Today, MacKenzie has nearly $34 billion at her disposal. She generously shares her wealth with charitable organizations, doing so "quickly and quietly." Scott has already donated over $16 billion to non-profit organizations, which has slightly lowered her ranking among the richest women in the world.

By the way, MacKenzie did not remain a desirable bachelorette for long: two years after her separation from Bezos, she married a high school chemistry teacher.

Rafaela Aponte-Diamant

Rafaela Aponte-Diamant and her husband Gianluigi each own 50% of MSC, the world's largest shipping company. Their wealth is estimated at over $35 billion. Rafaela was born in Haifa (then under the British Mandate of Palestine), but she immigrated to Switzerland with her parents as a child: her father became a banker in Geneva.

Rafaela met her future husband during a trip to the Italian island of Capri in the 1960s: Gianluigi was the ship's captain, and she was a passenger. After their wedding, the couple founded their own company, taking out a $200,000 loan to buy their first ship. The business quickly grew. Today, MSC is the world's largest privately-owned cruise company, employing around 23,500 people. Rafaela oversees the decoration of the liners, Gianluigi serves as the executive chairman, and their son Diego is the president of MSC.

Savitri Jindal

Indian businesswoman and politician Savitri Devi Jindal is the honorary chairperson of O.P. Jindal Group. Over the past three decades, this multibillion-dollar conglomerate has become one of India's largest business organizations, operating in key sectors of the local economy.

Savitri's husband, Om Prakash Jindal, founded the company. He passed away in 2005 in a helicopter crash. Today, Savitri is considered the richest woman in India, with a net worth estimated at $37 billion. She is wealthy in every sense: she has nine children, most of whom have followed in their enterprising parents' footsteps.

Jacqueline Mars

Jacqueline Mars (owner of nearly $40 billion) holds about 30% of the shares in the food and candy empire Mars Incorporated. She is the granddaughter of Franklin Clarence Mars, the founder of the company behind popular brands like M&Ms, Snickers, and Skittles.

Jacqueline worked at Mars from 1982 until the early 2000s. She spent most of her time working with Mars Foundation, the company's charitable fund.

Julia Koch

In 2019, after her husband David Koch's death, Julia Koch and her three children inherited 42% of Koch Industries' shares. Julia's earnings grow every year: today she has more than $66 billion.

Before meeting David, Julia worked as an assistant to designer Adolfo Sardina, dressing high-profile clients, including former First Lady Nancy Reagan. She met her future husband on a blind date in 1991. The couple married five years later. Today, Koch is the president of the David H. Koch Foundation, which supports numerous projects in education and the arts.

Alice Walton

Alice Walton, whose wealth is estimated at $76 billion, is the only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton. Alice owns a share of Walmart stock but does not work for the corporation.

Walton chose a different path. In 2011, she opened the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and ten years later, she founded a medical school. An interesting fact: Alice's second husband was a simple worker who built a pool in her garden. However, the unequal marriage did not stand the test of time.

Françoise Bettencourt Meyers

The heiress of the French perfume and cosmetics company L'Oréal, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, has held the title of the world's richest woman for several years (and she is also in the top 20 wealthiest people on the planet). Her net worth is estimated to be nearly $100 billion.

The businesswoman and philanthropist is the granddaughter of Eugène Schueller, the founder of the cosmetics empire. When Françoise's 94-year-old mother died in 2017 (at that time the richest woman in the world), she inherited the entire family fortune.

For almost 30 years, Bettencourt-Meyers has been the director of L'Oréal and owns 33% of the company's shares. Additionally, Françoise serves as the president of the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, which supports science and the arts and promotes the development of an inclusive society. Notably, the entrepreneur donated $226 million for the restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral after the fire in April 2019.