Ranking 6th on the overall billionaires list, we can say that Mrs. Walton knows her way with money. She inherited most of her wealth from her late husband John Walton, who died in a plane crash in 2005. His father, John Walton, was the founder of one of the world’s biggest retailers, Wal-Mart. With an amazing $42.1 billion, Christy shows she was not only able to pick a good family to marry into, but also to keep up the business when she was left a widow. Another source of Christy’s net worth is her 27% stake in the First Solar Company, which is worth around $1.8 Billion, making her the richest of the Waltons.
She is ranked as the highest female philanthropist according to the amount of money she gives as a percentage of her wealth. Between 2002 and 2006, when her estimated wealth was $16.3 billion, she gave a total of $3.5 billion to charity. She is well known for taking part in many non-profit organizations.
Apart from making and keeping her money, 60-year-old Mrs. Walton keeps a very private life in Jackson, Wyoming.
Besides Christy, the Walton family also takes up the 9th, 10th and 11th place on the Forbes list. Mrs. Alice Walton, another heiress of the Wal-Mart fortune, is the proud 10th richest person in the world.
Her net worth of $39.7 billion has given her the chance to focus on curating art, and open her Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas in 2011. This museum features works of Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell and Georgia O’Keeffe, as well as some pieces from her personal collection (valued in hundreds of millions of dollars). Christy Walton’s sister-in-law has also been spending her wealth on politics – supporting the Republican Party, and, lately, the presidential bid by Hillary Clinton.
Alice Walton has been involved in three serious automobile accidents. In 1983, she shattered her leg during a family reunion in Mexico, resulting in two dozen surgeries to ease the lingering pain she had felt. Later, in 1989, she struck and killed a 50-year-old woman, but no charges were ever filed. She was also caught driving under the influence multiple times, but, again, official charges were dropped.
She was twice married, but divorced both men.
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