A list compiled by Forbes.com features 70 of the World's richest mothers.
Forbes.com gave these Billionaire Mothers the perfect gift right ahead of Mother's day. A list compiled by them featuring 70 of the World's richest mothers is topped by US based Christy Walton.
India's Savitri Jindal, a non-executive chairperson of the O.P. Jindal Group, founded by her husband Om Prakash Jindal was at the fourth spot and is also the woman billionaire with the highest number of children.
It's interesting to note that only eight of these women earned their own way to vast riches.
The self-made billionaire moms include Meg Whitman and J K Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series.
Here is a look at some of them.
Christy Walton of United States, a 55-year-old widow, topped the list with her riches amounting to a whopping 22.5 billion USD.
She 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.
At the second position is 87-year-old Liliane Bettencourt of France who inherited the fortune from her father, the founder of cosmetic giant L'Oreal. The makeup heiress is also Europe's richest mom.
What's interesting is that she is not on speaking terms with her only daughter, Françoise Bettencourt-Meyer who claims that when her mother became a widow in 2007, François-Marie Banier, 61, a well-known photographer, writer and painter befriended Liliane and took advantage of her.
She even petitioned courts to investigate reported $1.4 billion worth of cash and gifts that her mother allegedly gave Banier.
With the trial scheduled to take place in July, Liliane who denies the allegations, has been ordered to undergo psychological testing. (AFP Image)
On third spot is 86-year-old mother of three from Sweden, Birgit Rausing. She inherited packaging giant Tetra Laval after her husband Gad Rausing died in 2000 and has a net estimated worth of 13 billion USD. Birgit is retired in Switzerland and the family business is handled by her children, all three of whom sit on board.
60-year-old widow of Om Prakash Jindal, Savitri Jindal is the nonexecutive chairperson of the O.P. Jindal Group, a steel and power conglomerate founded in 1952.
She took over as group head after her husband died in a helicopter crash in 2005. Savitri is also Asia's richest woman and is a mother of nine which makes her the woman billionaire with the highest number of children.
Savitri is also a Congress MLA from Hisar constituency in Haryana.
Among the self-made billionaire moms is England's J K Rowling, the author of the renowned Harry Potter series. After a painful divorce, Rowling moved to Edinburgh with her first child where she wrote in cafes. The advance from the manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone helped her pay her rent.
Rowling now has two more children with her current husband. (AFP Image)
Margaret Whitman is an American businesswoman who became the first self-made white billionaire. She was President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay from March 1998 to March 2008.
"For Whitman, motherhood was not a deterrent to her success, but an aid," Forbes said on its website.
She is a Republican candidate for Governor of California in the November 2010 election. (AFP Image)
Other self-made millionaires on the list include Rosalia Mera, who along with her former husband launched the Spanish clothing firm Zara.
