All five of Bernard Arnault’s children have joined the family business.
The French billionaire and head of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH is one of the richest people in the world with a net worth of around $200 billion, according to Forbes. His children, Delphine, Antoine, Alexandre, Frédéric and Jean, have become part of his massive business which he cofounded in the 1980s. LVMH now claims dozens of luxury brands, including Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., TAG Heuer and Givenchy.
In 1973, Bernard married his first wife, Anne Dewavrin, and they share two children together, Delphine and Antoine. A year after their divorce, the businessman married his second wife, concert pianist Hélène Mercier. They welcomed their first son together, Alexandre, in the early 1990s. The couple went on to have two more sons, Frédéric and Jean.
During an interview with The New York Times in September 2023, Bernard said that it’s “not an obligation, nor inevitable” that one of his children will take over as the head of LVMH. “The best person inside the family or outside the family should be one day my successor,” he added. “But it’s not something that I hope is a duel for the near future.”
Bernards youngest, Jean, has shared that while the siblings do discuss the future of LVMH, “at the end, it’s he [Bernard] who decides.” Though the family has been compared to the fictional one from HBO’s Succession, Antoine told the newspaper that there is no animosity amongst the siblings. “I know it’s disappointing for a lot of people, but we actually get on well,” he said.
Here’s everything to know about Bernard Arnault’s five kids: Delphine, Antoine, Alexandre, Frédéric and Jean.
Delphine Arnault, 49
Bernard and his first wife, Dewavrin, welcomed their first child, daughter Delphine Arnault, on April 4, 1975.
She was raised in France but attended a French-American school in New York from ages 7 to 10, which is where she became fluent in English, per the Financial Times. Delphine later attended the EDHEC Business School in Lille, France, and the London School of Economics before taking a job at the consulting firm McKinsey for two years.
In 2000, she joined the family business as development director of John Galliano fashion house, per Women’s Wear Daily. She moved over to Dior a year later and spent 12 years there as the commercial director and then deputy managing director before taking on the role of executive vice president at Louis Vuitton in 2013.
Delphine told the Financial Times in October 2014 that she didn’t discover fashion until she was a teenager. She said she learned style tips from her mother, who would wear “beautiful dresses and suits,” but she never had the desire to become a designer.
“I think it’s great to work with designers, and fascinating to work with creative people, but it’s the business side that fascinates me,” she told the outlet.
In January 2023, Bernard appointed Delphine CEO of Christian Dior. In a statement released with the announcement, he called his daughter’s appointment “another milestone in a career journey in fashion and leather goods defined by excellence.”
“Under her leadership, the desirability of Louis Vuitton products advanced significantly, enabling the brand to regularly set new sales records,” he added. “Her keen insights and incomparable experience will be decisive assets in driving the ongoing development of Christian Dior.”
In 2024, Delphine opened up to Vogue about her first year as CEO of the iconic fashion house and revealed that her father brings all the children together once a month for a working lunch.
“He’s involved us from when we were quite young,” Delphine added. “He talks to us about the group strategy, discusses questions that arise. He’s always wanted to pass on his knowledge. It’s a lot of work to choose the houses one buys carefully.”
Outside of her career, Delphine told WWD in April 2014 that in her spare time, she loves going to museums, watching TV and exercising. “I spend a lot of time in museums, I particularly like the Guggenheim, MoMA in New York or LACMA and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, for example,” she said. “When I need to relax, I love to go to the movies or watch a good TV series. I also practice a lot of sport, mostly tennis and swimming.”
In 2005, Delphine married Alessandro Vallarino Gancia, the heir to an Italian wine fortune. They were married for five years and divorced in 2010. She has since been in a relationship with tech billionaire Xavier Niel. Delphine has two children.
“I’m quite discreet,” Delphine told the Financial Times in 2014 when asked to confirm details about her family. “I think I’d rather focus on my work. So, I only speak when I have something to say. ‘Live hidden, and live happy.’ ”
Antoine Arnault, 47
Bernard and Dewavrin welcomed their son, Antoine Arnault, on June 4, 1977.
Like his older sister, Antoine also works for LVMH. He joined the group in 2005, working in the advertising department before he was promoted to the director of communications at Louis Vuitton in 2007, per Business of Fashion. Antoine’s current roles include chairman of Loro Piana and head of communication and image at LVMH — he stepped down as CEO of Berluti in 2023. A year prior, Antoine was also appointed CEO of Christian Dior SE, according to WWD.
In October 2012, Antoine told The Guardian that he was taught fashion “from the age of 12,” which is also the time when his father bought and created LVMH.
“We spent all our weekends in stores, speaking about brands, discussing advertising – I remember watching the adverts for [top-selling Dior perfumes] Poison, for Dolce Vita … is the music right? The edit? I had a couple of rebellious years when I didn’t want to be bothered with it, but I very naturally came back to it,” he said. “It was really a road that I was happy to drive down.”
He added, “The fact that we were initiated into it very early gave me and my sister Delphine a headstart. We feel things, brands, streets, we know where it’s going to happen maybe a tiny bit before the others, so we use that.”
In January 2020, Antoine announced his engagement to model Natalia Vodianova, whom he had been dating since 2011. They got married in September 2020 during an intimate ceremony in Paris, per Vogue.
Speaking with W Magazine in May 2017, Antoine opened up about their relationship, saying, “Since almost our first date, it has been a superb roller coaster ride.”
“I remember seeing her and my jaw sort of dropped internally,” he recalled of the first time they met on a shoot for a 2008 Louis Vuitton campaign. “I mean, of course she’s beautiful, but she has something undefinable … There’s an aura about her.”
Antoine and Vodianova have two children together, and the model also shares three children with her ex-husband, Justin Portman.
“Going from zero to five kids in two and a half years is the most wonderful thing in the world,” Antoine told W Magazine. “Not only having our own, but her kids as well. Natalia is much more mature as a mother than she was when she had her first babies. And it’s a bit selfish, but the older ones are a great help with the little ones!”
Alexandre Arnault, 32
Bernard married his second wife Mercier in 1991, and a year later, they welcomed their oldest son, Alexandre Arnault, on May 5, 1992.
Alexandre graduated from Télécom ParisTech in 2015 and later obtained his master’s degree from École Polytechnique, per his LinkedIn. In October 2016, he was appointed CEO of Rimowa. According to a 2018 interview with The New York Times, Alexandre was the one who persuaded his father to buy an 80% stake in the German suitcase company.
He told the outlet that he was “obviously raised to be in the group,” but it was a choice he made, turning down other job offers to join the family business. Alexandre’s mother, Mercier, is a concert pianist, and while Alexandre is an accomplished musician, he chose not to take that route.
“She [Mercier] always told us if we wanted to become musicians she would support us,” he said. “I’ll never know if my dad would have been happy with it. But he loves the piano.”
In January 2021, Alexandre left Rimowa to join Tiffany & Co. as the executive vice president of product and communications, per Business Insider. However, he retains his title of non-executive chairman for the suitcase brand. Alexandre announced his career move with a post on Instagram, sharing photos from his time at the brand.
“I am now leaving the reigns of RIMOWA to join Tiffany & Co in New York,” he wrote in the caption. “I am honoured to have been part of the RIMOWA Family. I would like to deeply thank the entire crew, as well as everyone outside the company who supported us … No matter the distance, RIMOWA will always be in my heart.”
A year before he joined Tiffany & Co., in December 2020, Alexandre announced his engagement to girlfriend Geraldine Guyot, the founder of accessories label D’Estrëe. He shared a photo of the two on Instagram and wrote, “Engaged to my soulmate and my best friend 💍♾.”
They married in June 2021 at a town hall ceremony in Paris before hosting a larger wedding in Venice, Italy in October 2021, per Tatler. The star-studded guest list included Pharrell Williams, Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
In 2023, Alexandre and Guyot welcomed their first child together. He revealed the news during an interview with The Week while discussing the presence of Tiffany & Co. in big moments.
“We are able to be present in peoples’ lives from very early on. Sometimes even from birth,” he said. I just had a baby and I received a lot of Tiffany birth presents. So, that’s amazing. We are one of the few brands, if not the only brand, that is able to do that.”
In spring 2024, Alexandre joined the LVMH board.
Frédéric Arnault, 29
Bernard and Mercier welcomed their second son, Frédéric Arnault, on Nov. 7, 1995.
Like his brother Alexandre, Frédéric attended École Polytechnique and graduated with a degree in computational and applied mathematics in 2018, per his LinkedIn. He held internships at McKinsey & Company and Facebook before assuming the position of head of connected technologies at TAG Heuer. He’s been promoted twice and was appointed CEO of the watch brand in July 2020.
According to an October 2021 interview with The New York Times, Frédéric wanted to be an architect as a child but, at age 15, decided to be an entrepreneur. With all his siblings working at LVMH, he also shared that they often discuss business when they’re together.
Frédéric and Alexandre joined their elder siblings on the LVMH board in spring 2024, appointed by their father, and Frédéric was named managing director of the family holding company Financiere Agache in June 2024.
“Ninety-five percent of the time, we talk about business,” he said. “It was always like that. Growing up we talked about studies a lot, sport, music, politics, but business was still the main topic of discussion.”
In his spare time, Frédéric told The New York Times he likes to play backgammon and chess. He also enjoys playing the piano and once performed with the Moscow Philharmonic, but now, with a successful business career, he said, “it’s hard to practice enough.”
“Music is like meditation,” he added. “It allows me to focus on something else.”
In August 2024, K-pop group BLACKPINK’s singer Lisa was photographed on a yacht with Frédéric and his family, fueling romance rumors.
Jean Arnault, 26
Bernard and Mercier welcomed their youngest son, Jean Arnault, in October 1998.
According to his LinkedIn, Jean has two master’s degrees: one in mechanical engineering from Imperial College London and one in financial mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He interned at McLaren Racing and Morgan Stanley before joining Louis Vuitton in 2021 as the director of marketing and development in the watch division.
In a March 2022 interview with the Financial Times, Jean said that he credits his brother Frédéric with sparking his initial interest in watches.
“I was a student in London when Frédéric started working at TAG Heuer,” he recalled. “We have a close relationship and he started talking to me about the new watches and all the different things he was working on. I was fascinated. And that’s really the turning point. Once you start getting interested in it, it’s a bit of a rabbit hole.”
Jean is currently in a relationship with the daughter of Parisian nobles Zita d’Hauteville, who is a partner manager at YouTube. The couple often share posts about each other on Instagram, including birthday tributes and snaps from vacation.
Source: People
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