Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken (born 30 June 1954) is a Dutch billionaire businesswoman, and the owner of a 25% controlling interest in the world's second-largest brewer, Heineken N.V. She is the richest person in the Netherlands, with a net worth of $16.7 billion as of May 2021, according to the Forbes billionaires list.[2]
She is married to Michel de Carvalho, a British financier, director of Citigroup and a former Olympic skier, whom she met on a ski holiday in St. Moritz, Switzerland.[5] He is known for portraying T.E. Lawrence's ill-fated servant Farraj in the 1962 film classic Lawrence of Arabia as a teen, and he is currently a member of the supervisory board of Heineken NV. They reside in London with their five children.[2][6][7]
Upon the death of her father in 2002, Charlene inherited about £3 billion, making her the wealthiest person with Dutch citizenship.[8][9] Prior to that, she had no money to her name except for one share of Heineken stock.[1] In 2019, the Sunday Times Rich List ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK named her the wealthiest woman and the 7th overall, with an estimated fortune of £12 billion.[10] Charlene's wealth in 2021 was estimated by Forbes at $16.7 billion making her 116th among the world's billionaires.[11]
^Sellers, Patricia (3 December 2014). "Heineken's Charlene de Carvalho: A self-made heiress". Fortune Magazine. Retrieved 30 December 2014. While women in the Netherlands generally attach their maiden name to their married name, Charlene, as a London resident, had dropped "Heineken" from her surname.
^Sellers, Patricia (3 December 2014). "Heineken's Charlene de Carvalho: A self-made heiress". Fortune. Retrieved 3 June 2022. All in the family: How to pass on a company to the next generation. The de Carvalho family (...) Alexander (...) Louisa, Charles, Sophie, and Isabel.
