In Pictures: World's Richest Moms
$22.5 billion
U.S.
55. Widowed, 1 child
Became a billionaire in 2005 when her late husband John, second son of Wal-Mart Stores founder Sam Walton, died when his ultralight aircraft crashed. She is the richest of the Waltons thanks to John's early bet on alternative energy firm First Solar.
$20 billion
France
87. Widowed, 1 child
Makeup heiress inherited fortune from her father, the founder of cosmetic giant L'Oreal. Europe's richest mom is not on speaking terms with her only daughter, Françoise Bettencourt-Meyer. Daughter claims François-Marie Banier, 61, a well-known photographer, writer and painter Liliane befriended, took advantage of her mother, who became a widow in 2007. Last year Bettencourt-Meyers petitioned courts to investigate reported $1.4 billion worth of cash and gifts that her mother allegedly gave Banier. Liliane denies all; has been ordered to undergo psychological testing before a July trial.
$13 billion
Sweden
86. Widowed, 3 children
She and her three children inherited packaging giant Tetra Laval after her husband Gad Rausing died in 2000. The firm revolutionized the storing of liquids, such as juices and milk, by developing lightweight packaging that preserves the nutritional value and taste of products. Birgit is retired in Switzerland. Leaves family business to her children, all three of whom sit on board; Jorn, the youngest, also heads company's mergers and acquisitions division.
$12.2 billion
India
60. Widowed, 9 children
Nonexecutive chair of the O.P. Jindal Group, a steel and power conglomerate founded by her late husband, Om Prakash Jindal, in 1952. Took over as group head after he died in a helicopter crash in 2005. In his lifetime the patriarch had handed down operations to their 4 sons, Prithviraj, Sajjan, Ratan and Naveen, who today run independent units. Savitri was re-elected in the assembly elections in Haryana, her home state.
$11.5 billion
U.S.
48. Married, 2 children
With her father she controls Fidelity Investments, America's largest mutual fund company, founded by her grandfather. She earned an MBA at Harvard and joined the family business in 1988. Abby got to run her first diversified fund at age 28. Now she runs personal and workplace investing division; believed by some to be father's chosen successor.
$11.1 billon
Germany
47. Married, 3 children
BMW heiress holds MBA from IMD business school in Lausanne, Switzerland. She sits on supervisory board of chemical manufacturer Altana, of which she now controls over 95%; is seeking to acquire remaining shares and delist the firm. Once considered quite circumspect, the married mom publicly admitted she had an affair with a man she'd met at a hotel bar and later tried to blackmail her for millions. She turned in the blackmailer, who is now serving a six-year prison term.
Iris Fontbona
$11 billion
Chile
Widowed, 3 children
Inherited fortune after her husband Andronico Luksic died in 2005. She is matriarch of the family that controls Antofagasta, one of the world's largest copper mines; It has shares in Quinenco, a consumer packaging and beverage maker, and Plava Laguna, a chain of Croatian beach resorts. Son Jean Paul is Antofagasta's chairman.
$11 billion
U.S.
71. Divorced, 3 children
Grandfather Frank Mars began making chocolates in 1911 in his kitchen in Tacoma, Wash. Her father, Forrest Sr., invented M&Ms, then introduced malt-flavored nougat, the foundation of famous candy bar products that include Milky Way, Snickers and 3 Musketeers. The third generation inherited the company when her father died in 1999. Mars and her siblings now share ownership of world's largest candy company with $30 billion in sales.
$10 billion
U.S.
90. Divorced, 3 children
Daughter of Cox Enterprises founder James M. Cox (d. 1957), who finished high school at 17 and worked as a schoolteacher and newspaper reporter before shelling out $26,000 for the Dayton Evening News in 1898. James Sr. later moved into politics. Today Cox Enterprises includes Cox Communications cable company, 17 daily newspapers, 15 TV stations, 86 radio stations, Manheim auctions (cars) and AutoTrader.com. Revenues: $15 billion.
$7 billion
Netherlands
55. Married, 5 children
Eight years ago she inherited a 25% stake in one of the world's greatest brewers, Heineken NV, from her late father, Freddy Heineken. A delegate member of Heineken's board of directors; her husband, investment banker Michel de Carvalho, sits on the supervisory board. She studied law at the University of Leiden, and resides with her husband and five children in London.
It was her own mother, Whitman writes in a book published by Random House this January, titled The Power of Many, who gave her "a bias toward action." In an interview with ForbesWoman earlier this year, Whitman discussed the relationship, explaining that her mother, who eventually learned Mandarin and visited China 80 times, had taught her that "you don't have to be perfect to be a leader, but you can't be timid."
Now that bias is leaning toward the governor's mansion, as Whitman campaigns to replace Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. During her campaign she has highlighted her mother's adventurous spirit in driving Meg and her two siblings from their home in Long Island on camping trips to California. Today she includes her husband and her two sons as influences in her love of the West Coast. They are sporty California residents, according to her campaign website, and as such are reasons she is so dedicated to the economically ailing state. "If we let California fail, we all fail," she says. "And we love California too much to let it fail. We have to work together to make it the place of our dreams again."
TheStreet: Mother's Day Flowers Gifts Set to Wilt
For Whitman, motherhood was not a deterrent to her success, but an aid, lending what she now says is inspiration and support during her current political endeavors.
That makes her somewhat unusual. Whitman is one of just 70 billionaire moms in the world, and one of only eight mothers to have created her own billion-dollar fortune. (By contrast, there are 555 self-made billionaires who are fathers). The rest inherited fortunes from fathers or late husbands, including the world's richest woman and mom, Christy Walton, whose husband John, son of the founder of Wal-Mart Stores ( WMT - news - people ), died in 2005 when his private plane crashed in Wyoming.
Some other enterprising moms include Zara's Rosalia Mera, whose two kids apparently watched her make dressing gowns, just before she and her now-ex husband Amancio Ortega launched the Spanish clothing line. The Gap ( GPS - news - people )'s Doris Fisher and Benetton's Guiliana Benetton also started clothing companies that went global and made their families among the richest in the world.
Joanne (JK) Rowling, author of the Harry Potter book franchise, has told the story of her difficult days in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she had moved with her first child after a painful divorce to be near her sister. Rowling now has two more children with her current husband. The advance from the manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Sorcerer's Stone in the U.S.), which she wrote in cafes in Edinburgh, paid rent on the meager flat she shared with her first child while they were subsisting on welfare.
Those who inherit opportunity often use it to continue their own ambitious climb. Abigail Johnson, with her father, controls Fidelity Investments. The mutual fund company, the largest in the U.S., was founded by her grandfather. She was promoted to chairman of the board of fixed income and asset allocation funds last year, and is believed by some to be her father's chosen successor. She has raised two children with her husband.
Asia's richest woman, Savitri Jindal, the widowed matriarch of OP Jindal Group, a steel and power conglomerate in India, has nine children, more than any woman on the list. While she is non-executive chairman, her four sons have divvied up the business and each run their own independent units. In the meantime she keeps herself busy with politics, having been re-elected in the assembly elections in her home state of Haryana last year.
But being a billionaire mom--or for that matter, the child of a billionaire mom--isn't always easy.
Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the L'Oreal cosmetics fortune, and her daughter have reportedly been off speaking terms as a result of Bettencourt's patronage of a younger companion, an artist her daughter alleges accepted more than a billion dollars in gifts from the heiress. The relationship between Bettencourt and her 56-year-old daughter, Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, is reflected in an unhappy light amid a legal complaint filed by Bettencourt-Meyers, who is dubious of her mother's judgment in spending her wealth. Liliane denies all, but has still been ordered to undergo psychological testing before a July trial.
A similarly unfortunate rift happened when Marilyn Carlson Nelson, chief executive of the Minnesota-based hospitality company Carlson Cos., relieved her son from his role as chief operating officer in 2007. Curtis Nelson, who reportedly used controlled substances and was arrested at least once for drunk driving, was terminated for "explosive," "inconsistent" behavior, derailing the trajectory he may have expected to follow to head the company himself.
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