Bettencourt accuses daughter of 'petty reactions?

L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt has condemned her daughter, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, on primetime television following accusations that she is mentally unfit.

France's richest woman has finally spoken out after the trial brought by her daughter to prosecute a man accused of exploiting Bettencourt for just under ?1 billion was postponed.
 
The octogenarian told France 3 Bretagne: "I am both saddened and upset because I ask myself how, after so many years, someone who lived near me had such petty reactions".
 
The trial was postponed following accusations by Bettencourt's former accountant that she had funded Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential election campaign in 2007. Speaking to France 2 earlier this week, president Sarkozy denied all allegations, arguing that the accusations were "shameful' and that he had never received envelopes of cash from the Bettencourt family.
 
The scandal surrounding France's richest woman began when Bettencourt was caught on tape, speaking to an advisor about undisclosed holdings in Switzerland and the Seychelles. (Continue reading here).
 
Both Bettencourt and Bettencourt Meyers sit on the board of the France-based cosmetic company. Bettencourt holds a 30% stake in the company founded by her father in 1909. L'Oreal recorded 2008 revenues of ?17 billion and Bettencourt herself is worth an estimated ?20 billion, making her the 17th richest person in the world.

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