Fifteen years ago, and three days after making £50million from the sale of a stake in Net-a-Porter, the luxury fashion platform that she created, Natalie Massenet sat down with Vogue magazine.
During a revealing interview, she shared the secrets of success as a female entrepreneur. They were simple, she said: choose the right husband and nanny, and then don't worry about a social life.
How Dame Natalie (an honour bestowed in 2016, for services to the fashion and retail industries) must look back at that naive philosophy with regret.
For a year later, the British-American's first marriage, to French investment banker Arnaud Massenet, was over and a new relationship with a younger, dashing Swedish entrepreneur Erik Torstensson, co-founder and creative director of the celebrity-beloved fashion brand Frame, had ignited.
Four years later, Massenet – an influential and powerful woman – walked away from Net-a-Porter with an estimated £100 million from the sale of her remaining shares, and her social life with Torstensson exploded.
