Mouna Ayoub

Mouna Ayoub (Arabic: منى أيوب‎) (born on 27 February 1957 in Kuwait)[1] is a well-known French socialite and businesswoman of Lebanese origin. Frequently in the media, she is often a guest of the Cannes film festival and makes headlines in French gossip magazines.[2] A Maronite Christian by family, at the age of 20 she converted to Islam in order to marry Nasser Al-Rashid, a 40 year old businessman and adviser to King Fahd. After eighteen years of marriage, and according to her divorce agreements, she left Saudi Arabia and built a fortune by investing in real estate and stocks.[3] She wrote about her marriage in her 2000 book La Vérité: autobiographie.[4][5][6]

Ms. Ayoub stated she wrote the book to explain her situation, and to address allegations published in the Middle East by a Lebanese magazine that she was a modern day Madame Bovary.[6] As Scott MacLeod of Time Magazine wrote: "But if her tale provides a rare look at the extravagance often wrought by unimagined wealth, it also serves as a disturbing manifesto against the extreme restrictions imposed on women by some ultraconservative Arab societies."[6] Her former husband filed suit in an attempt to stop publication of the autobiography.[3] The book became a best seller in France.[6]

In 1997, she bought a boat from Bernard Tapie, the Phocéa (the largest sailing yacht in the world before 2004), for €5.56 million to which was added €18.25 million worth of work.[7][8] To pay for this work Mouna sold a number of her jewels including "The Mouna diamond," one of the largest yellow diamonds of the world (112.53 carats (22.506 g)) for a price of €2.52 million (16.5 million francs) and a Bulgari necklace for 15.3 million francs.[8][9] After getting rid of the yacht, she sold the contents in a well publicized auction.[7]

The Associated Press estimated her net worth at over $300 million.[3][5] In 2006, The New York Times offered a figure of about $500 million.[10]

She has the largest private collection of haute couture in the world, encompassing more than 10,000 items.[2][5] She never wears the same item of couture twice, and all of the major couture houses maintain a Mouna mannequin for a proper fit in her absence.[5][11] The Associated Press claimed: "She's also a couture philanthropist. She has just donated what's been described as the most expensive dress ever made to Paris' Musee de la Mode — a gold Chanel traffic-stopper that cost over 300,000 euros ($412,000)."[5][11]

Her rags to riches story, involving cross cultural tension and claimed "scandal", has been the subject of intense reportage.[3][5][6] As The Daily Telegraph reported: "ONE of the richest women in the world will this week disclose how a disastrous marriage to a Saudi Royal family adviser drove her to depression and attempted suicide."[3]

Published works

References

  1. ↑ Staff writer (25 June 2000). "Le cri d'amour de Mouna Ayoub". La Dépêche du Midi (in French). Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Mouna Ayoub - Couture is an art". Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Coman, Julian (18 June 2000). "My marriage of misery to a billionaire". Daily Telegraph (Paris, France). Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  4. ↑ Ayoub, Mouna (1 January 2000). La Vérité: autobiographie (French) (Paperback) (in French). Neuilly-sur-Seine: M. Lafon. ISBN 2840986248. ISBN 978-2840986249. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Adamson, Thomas (20 February 2014). "Cinderella to Couture Queen: Meet Mouna Ayoub". Gennevilliers, France: Associated Press. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 MacLeod, Scott (31 July 2000). "What Money Can't Buy". Time Magazine (Cairo, Egypt). Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Szmydke, Paulina (19 March 2014). "Mouna Ayoub's Moving Sale" (PDF). WWD (Women’s Wear Daily). Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "The Long, Troubled, Glamorous Life Of Superyacht Phocea". Vanuatu Daily Post (Port Vila, Vanuatu: Vanuatu Daily Post: http://www.vanuatudaily.com Trading Post Limited). 16 November 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  9. ↑ "Record prices in auction houses". BBC News. 17 November 1998. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  10. ↑ Reddy, Sameer (27 August 2006). "The Remix: Petro Dollies". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Adamson, Thomas (20 February 2014). "Meet Mouna Ayoub: the billionaire haute couture collector". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 14 August 2014.

External links