Lebanese-born Mexican socialite and philanthropist Soumaya Domit Gemayel was married to Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim Helú from 1966 until her passing in 1999. Her husband is the CEO of Grupo Carso, América Móvil, and Telmex, and he owns stock in several Mexican companies. The ‘Forbes’ business journal ranked him as the richest person in the world between 2010 and 2013. Throughout her life, Soumaya actively participated in her husband’s numerous charitable endeavors and helped him with his business endeavors. She was in charge of establishing the legal foundation for organ donation, among other things. In honor of her, her husband constructed the private museum known as Museo Soumaya, which opened in 2011 at Plaza Carso and Plaza Loreto in Mexico City.
Ascent to Fame
Soumaya Domit Gemayel is descended from the Gemayel Family, a notorious Lebanese warlord clan that rose to prominence during the country’s 1975 civil war. But the media didn’t uncover this information about her familial connections until much later, when she had passed away. She first gained notoriety as the wife of business tycoon Carlos Slim Helú in the latter half of the 20th century. Later, her husband memorialized her name through the 2011 construction of the private museum, Museo Soumaya.
Personal Life & Family
Antonio Domit Dib and Lily Gemayel Domit welcomed Soumaya Domit Gemayel into the world in 1948 in Mexico City. She had four siblings growing up. Like her husband, Carlos Slim Helú, she was a Maronite Christian of Lebanese heritage. One year before to her own death, in 1998, her mother passed away.
In 1964, when she was just a teenager and Carlos Slim Helú was 24, Soumaya Domit Gemayel first met her future husband. Their mothers were friends and both had Lebanese-Mexican heritage. His boyhood home was just a few streets away from the one where she grew up. In the end, the two got married in 1966. They took a 40-day honeymoon tour that year, traveling to various places across the globe. England, Greece, New York, Naples, Spain, and France were among the places they visited throughout their tour. In 1967, she gave birth to Carlos Slim Domit, their first child together. They have since welcomed daughters Soumaya, Vanessa, and Johanna, as well as two more sons, Patrick and Marco Antonio.
The couple enjoyed a happy life together until 1999, when she passed away at the age of 51 from kidney issues. A photo from their wedding, where she is wearing her long, flowing bridal gown and he is wearing a bow tie, has become a permanent fixture in their family home. Her devoted husband, who has openly stated that he would not be married again, always puts a faded picture of her on his desk, even though the old round frame is damaged.
Legacy of Soumaya Domit Gemayel
Carlos Slim Helú, the husband of Soumaya Domit Gemayel, established the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City in 2011. It is a private museum bearing her name that functions as a non-profit cultural organization and provides free access to his remarkable collection of artwork. She had educated him about sculpture and painting, he said in an interview with ‘The Telegraph’ that year. He went on to reveal that two years before they were married, he had taken a solo journey to Europe and visited a number of galleries, including the National Gallery, the British Museum, and the National History Museum, the latter of which piqued his curiosity.
He took her to Europe after they were married in 1966 so she could see the art treasures in several of the galleries. He bought a painting for the first time when they went to an auction to acquire furniture for their new home in Mexico. It was an unidentified Flemish picture from the 16th century that showed Christians and lions against the Moors. Later, Museo Soumaya was inspired by the painting that was always hanging on their kitchen wall. The museum has more than 66,000 pieces of art, including religious relics, works by Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and the largest collection of pre-Hispanic and colonial coins in the world. It also has the second-largest collection of Rodin sculptures in the world and the largest Salvador Dalí collection in Latin America.
Her son-in-law, Fernando Romero, who is married to her daughter Soumaya, designed the museum’s building. Celebrities from all over the world, including former Spanish president Felipe González, fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, Queen Noor of Jordan, and Larry King, attended the museum’s inaugural event. Additionally, her husband has named a number of his charitable endeavors after his cherished wife. He used his charitable efforts to support a genetic medicine research project after she passed away.
Net worth of Soumaya Domit Gemayel
The estimated net worth of Soumaya Domit Gemayel is about $5 million.