With close to €170bn in the family kitty, a hundred or so members, families of 3 to 6 children per generation, and a world-class brand, you can imagine Christmas dinners get a bit lively.
Among the usual family mess, there’s an affair the family carefully hid and ignored, until the son born out of wedlock went to the press.
Edmond, born in 1997.
He is the son of Hubert Guerrand-Hermès and Carol Anne Bundy, a New York gallery owner. Born in Baltimore, like his mother, he was always kept away from Hermès and was raised by Carol. They still live together, in a handsome building in Paris’s 7th arrondissement when they’re in town, where Xavier Guerrand-Hermès, Hubert’s twin, also lives. Or in their Florida house, bought by Hubert.
Hubert and Carol met in 1991 through Jonas Salk, the biologist who invented the polio vaccine. Attentive in his double life, Hubert always travelled with Edmond, while showering Carol with Hermès clothes and accessories. Edmond went to school at a prestigious Swiss boarding school, attended before him by the Shah of Iran, French singer Joe Dassin and Sean Lennon.
But of Hermès, Edmond only got the name his father passed on to him. Hubert acknowledged him, the rest of the family did not, and his only public mention is in his father’s death notice in 2016.8
That is when Edmond meets the Hermès family for the first time.
After Hubert’s funeral at the Protestant church of l’Étoile, Hubert’s legitimate daughter, Olympia, receives Edmond at the Hôtel de Lannion, a private mansion. Built in 1754 by Jean Damun, the architect behind many buildings in the capital, its entrance faces the Musée d’Orsay. Entirely decorated by François-Joseph Graf, it now has a fairly classical façade, which isn’t the original one, with two large apartments of 100 and 184m², and two studios.
It is the first time the half-siblings meet. It all happens at the back of the courtyard, within the 860m² of the mansion. Edmond collects a few personal effects, including some cufflinks. He hopes to ease his way into the family, but Olympia firmly shuts the door. And above all, so does her mother.
Because Hubert’s legitimate wife is Rosalinda Alvares Pereira de Melo. Eldest daughter of Jaime Álvares Pereira de Melo, Duke of Cadaval, who died in 2001, she asked for the title of Duchess of Cadaval-Hermès, which was granted to her by Duarte Pio de Bragança. These members of the House of Braganza are the pretenders to the throne of Portugal… which does not recognise their legitimacy.
This Portuguese story matters, because Portugal had been Hubert’s tax residence for years. Except that among the things Edmond collected were Hubert’s diaries, which suggest that this Portuguese residence was purely a tax dodge, and that he spent his time in France.
But behind the possible tax fraud, which has already caught the eye of the French tax authorities, there may also be an attempt to divert the inheritance. Out of his father’s colossal fortune, Edmond reportedly received between €40M and €70M at the time. Rosalinda allegedly moved a number of assets out and stashed them in several Canadian trusts.
As for Olympia, she got more than 200K shares, the very ones she moved into her Luxembourg company.
After dropping out of Columbia, Edmond took legal action to get his share of an estate estimated at €2bn. He has already turned down a €500M cheque, as part of a deal that would also have required him to keep his mouth shut.
In the meantime, and no doubt out of revenge, Olympia sold the Florida house and reportedly tried to sell the 7th arrondissement apartment, which now belongs to Edmond and his mother.
Edmond, for his part, would still like to join the Hermès group.
And above all, the family.