Hélène Mercier had a very good marriage, my grandmother would have said, when she married Bernard Arnault in 1991. Already, the director of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE was sitting on one of the biggest fortunes in France. But she certainly couldn’t have imagined that one day he would make her the richest wife in the world.
The feat came last year when Bloomberg crowned the French luxury mogul “the richest man in the world”, with net assets estimated at $162 billion, ahead of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, with whom he shares the podium of extremely wealthy people for some time. (Earlier this year, he lost his top position, overtaken by the tweeting enthusiast and the e-commerce mogul, their fortunes constantly fluctuating with the ups and downs of their stock market shares.)
Despite her status as a wealthy first lady, Mme Mercier-Arnault is far from being a kept woman. Her career as a concert pianist has taken her from Prague to Shanghai, playing with the greatest orchestras on the planet. Enough to feed her three children well without having to constantly wait for her husband’s pay on the table.
Hélène Mercier-Arnault was born in Montreal on March 5, 1960. She is the daughter of Me François Mercier (1923-2010), founding member of the Stikeman Elliott law firm, and Lucile Rouleau (1921-2021), real estate agent. The history of his family is as impressive as that of his fortune.
THE ANCESTOR
The ancestor Charles Mercier known as Lajoie (1735-1817), a soldier in the Berry regiment, arrived in New France in 1757 to save the colony, more threatened than ever. He participated in at least two important battles: that of Fort Carillon (1758), where Montcalm’s 4,000 soldiers had the upper hand over 16,000 British, and that of Sainte-Foy (1760), won by the troops of Vaudreuil and of Lévis.
The following year, he married young Marie-Anne Lahaise (1746-1825), 14 years old, a fourth generation Canadian, who gave birth to 15 children. The couple settled in the lordship of Lachenaie.
During the rebellions of 1837-1838, three of his grandsons, including François Mercier (1805-1886), were part of committees 38 and 75 of the patriots of Saint-Roch-de-Lachenaie.
The latter’s son, Joseph Mercier (1833-1899) was a coach manufacturer. His brother, François-Xavier (1837-1906), a strong man of 6 feet and 3 inches, a great traveler, co-founded Fort Reliance in the Yukon. He traded furs as far as Siberia.
Joseph’s son, Oscar-Félix Mercier (1866-1929), was a surgeon, as was his son Oscar (1898-1945). Trained in Paris, the latter was the first French-Canadian urologist. Professor and vice-dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Montreal, he died tragically, drowned at his chalet in Saint-Hippolyte-de-Kilkenny, in front of his helpless wife and son.
He was the grandfather of the woman who would one day become the richest wife on the planet.
The Merciers of America really weren’t born for bread.
More details “Fr. Mercier, famous Canadian traveler » engraving taken from L’opinion publique, Vol. 2, no. 43, p. 517 (October 26, 1871), from a photograph by William Notman (1826-1891).
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