The Billionaire the Butler and the Boyfriend Review: Directed by Baptiste Etchegaray and Maxime Bonnet, the documentary (L’Affaire Bettencourt: Scandale chez la femme la plus riche du monde) premiered on November 8, 2023, on Netflix. It follows one of the most elaborate and talked about scandals involving French businesswoman and L’Oréal heiress, Liliane Bettencourt and her daughter, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers. The show is produced by Quadbox alongside Yann Le Bourbouach, James Gay-rees, Paul Martin, and Nicolas Duval Adassovsky.
The limited docuseries consists of 3 episodes with a runtime of 45 minutes approximately. However, the show is originally shot in French and is available with English dub and subtitles.
-The Billionaire the Butler and the Boyfriend Review Contains Some Spoilers-
The docuseries consists of every element to keep the audience hooked from the start. A global company, a billionaire family, a sensational scandal and family feuds. At first, the story seems like an ordinary one about how a lonely rich woman is getting exploited. However, the plot soon thickens when the hidden truths are revealed, leading to a much more complicated situation.
From the outside, Liliane Bettencourt was a sophisticated and intelligent woman who ran her very profitable business efficiently. But soon after she suffers from crippling depression due to loneliness and it starts affecting her day-to-day life. Until she meets a very vibrant and lively photographer, François-Marie Banier, who completely changed her life.
Instead of jumping straight to the scandal, the creators provide a detailed overview of how everything started. We get an insight into Liliane’s life and her personality. Although she was a loving person, she was also a complex person who had a unique way of perceiving things. Moreover, her complicated relationship with her only daughter further creates a mystery about her character and her thought process.
Nevertheless, the documentary initially talks about how Banier takes advantage of their relationship. Over time, he managed to embezzle around 1 billion euros which created a concern among her employees and her daughter. But their relationship was not an intimate one, but rather a close friendship as Banier was a homosexual. It tells us how desperate she was for a true human connection and how easily trusted him instantly after she met him. She maintained a relationship with Banier that she did not even have with her own daughter.
However, Lilliane is not as soft and innocent as she seemed and it is revealed progressively in the series. She used to evade taxes and had many offshore accounts to hide her deeds from the government. But soon her lies caught up to her and one of her closest employees blows the whistle on her, the butler, Pascal Bonnefoy. He made recordings of the conversations they had for several meetings because he feared that she was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
These incidents further fuelled the fight between mother and daughter, and they strayed away from each other even more. Although the daughter’s intention was to keep her mother’s assets safe and not be taken advantage of by the people around her. But due to their complex relationship, either of them was unable to fully trust each other. More than a sensational scandal, the documentary focuses on the unfortunate falling out between a mother and daughter, and their inability to reconcile, fuelled by past traumas.
The Billionaire the Butler and the Boyfriend Review: Final Thoughts
The docuseries is fascinating, to say the least. Right from the start, the story of the French heiress seems like fiction most of the time due to some bizarre details. It takes us on a long journey into the intimate details of the billionaire’s affairs. Not just the financial aspect, but also her personal relationships which deeply affected her future. From an unusual relationship to money laundering, the show will make you invest in the story deeply and asking for more long after the credits roll.
Did you watch The Billionaire the Butler and the Boyfriend yet? Let us know in the comments below!