Bernard Arnault Biography Education, Family, Age, and Net Worth

Bernard Arnault’s more than 50-year career in the world of fashion.

Top fashion journalist Kara Cerny is disputing what she says is Bernard Arnault’s “poisonous” reputation by publishing “Disgrace and Sex” (Saint Martin’s Press, $28) to help debunk his legacy of grotesque excess, including recent reports from his mistress that in the 1990s he contracted coronavirus, before recovering from the pandemic.

“I have no interest in destroying his status as one of the world’s most powerful men,” Cerny says. “As a journalist, I focus on people’s reputations and exploit their use for the public good. By sharing my record of his life, and shedding light on his ugly side, I aim to demonstrate that this giant figure in the business world is a fallen angel that goes down badly under the prying eyes of others.”

Cerny also claims that Arnault “is not the out-of-control monster who killed the world of his loved ones, such as reports have claimed.”

“No matter where this snake is, he’s not the person they seem to believe he is,” Cerny says. “And Arnault’s own track record proves his willingness to give back to society.”

Born in the Sartre region of France, Arnault studied law at the University of Geneva before becoming a hotelier in France in 1963. After contracting the HIV virus, he left the fashion industry for decades before returning to the industry in 2009. In 2010, he founded the Bombardier Learning Centre of Paris to help connect youngsters with opportunities to gain proficiency in business, technology, design, entrepreneurship, and more.

Former model Stephane Oïslewska became his second wife in 2006 after he divorced his first wife Géraldine Patrouin, whom he had been married to since 1999. Born in 1955 to a French mother and a Polish Jewish father, she’s a former editor of Coupé Royale.

After he got divorced from her, he moved back to Monaco and wed Veronica Berthe, his partner since 1996. They share three children together. She’s a former model and the founder of Fashion Consultants Co., which helps younger women succeed in fashion.

In an op-ed for PEOPLE in July, Baroness Philippa Mellon revealed that she and Arnault have an “open and powerful relationship” but denied that he used her to “pressure her in business decisions and appointments.”

Forbes magazine reported that Arnault and Mervyn Rockefeller had a decade-long affair that resulted in a four-year-old daughter named Julien, but that Arnault continued living with Berthe as far back as 1999. He was previously married to Patrouin.