Safra was born Lily Watkins on December 30, 1934, in Porto Alegre, Brazil daughter of Wolf White Watkins, a British railway engineer who moved to South America, and Annita Noudelman de Castro, an Uruguayan of Russian-Jewish ancestry.
She grew up in Rio de Janeiro. At the age of 17, she married Mario Cohen, an Argentine hosiery magnate. They had three children: Claudio (who died in a car crash in Brazil ca. 1989.), Eduardo, and Adriana.
Brazil-born, Monaco-based billionaire Lily Safra inherited most of her fortune from her fourth husband, the late Edmond J. Safra, a banker.
Edmond’s 1999 death in a fire at his Monaco penthouse made global headlines and prompted conspiracy theories despite his nurse’s admission of guilt.
Edmond left most of his fortune to the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation, but he also left Lily enough assets to make her a billionaire.
She sold the stake in 2009 for $340 million to Brazilian retailer Grupo Pao de Acucar, resulting in a 2015 lawsuit she ultimately won.
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