Liliane Bettencourt, the billionaire heiress to the L’Oreal cosmetics empire, lashed out yesterday at her daughter for questioning her right to donate a billion  dollars in gifts to a society photographer.

Mrs Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers claims that her 86-year-old mother, France’s richest woman, was charmed by an unscrupulous dandy 25 years her junior into parting with close  to a billion dollars in artworks, gifts and life insurance.

She has filed a suit against Mr Francois-Marie Banier, 61, Latin Quarter artist, jet-set  photographer and longstanding friend of the Bettencourts, suggesting her mother’s  faculties must be impaired for her to part with such a vast sum.

According to letters published by Le Monde newspaper, Ms Bettencourt – who insists she  is a “free woman” in full grip of her senses – responded with a threat to slash her  child’s share of a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine at US$23 billion (S$33.6 billion).

In an interview with the Journal du Dimanche, Ms Bettencourt insisted she had done nothing to fritter away her capital, and her daughter would inherit the family’s full 30 per cent stake in L’Oreal. “She will get everything when I die,” she said.

“What on earth has got into her?”

“What I gave to Francois-Marie Banier, although it is a large sum, is really not that much when put in proportion," she said, without confirming the gifts’ value.

Ms Bettencourt accused her 55-year-old daughter – with whom she has no contact  - of acting out of “meanness” or to “settle old scores”. “Jealousy could be part of it,” she said, suggesting her “introverted” daughter suffered in contrast with the flamboyant Banier.

Mother and daughter long worked hand in hand to manage the family’s stake in L’Oreal and retain control of the group. But Ms Bettencourt said their personal relationship was  over: “I don’t see her any more and I don’t want to.”

She acknowledged that Mr Banier had an “interest” in their friendship, but flatly denied she was manipulated by him. According to testimony leaked to magazine Le Point, she signed over life insurance contracts to Mr Banier worth more than ¤600 million (S$1.2 billion) in 2003 and 2006, both times after a stint in hospital.

Investigators are close to wrapping up their probe into the daughter’s claims and will shortly decide whether to press charges, according to judicial officials.

Ms Bettencourt denied reports that she had asked President Nicolas Sarkozy to intervene  to halt the probe – saying he “has enough work to do as it is”.

Mounting media attention to the dynastic battle forced Ms Bettencourt’s estate on
Wednesday to issue a statement to friends and L’Oreal staff, reassuring them that she  was in “excellent” health.

Ms Bettencourt told the Journal du Dimanche she had seen a psychiatrist following her husband’s death late last year, who told her “nothing was wrong”. According to judicial officials, she has so far refused to undergo a mental health check.

» L'oreal heiress sued by her daughter