Now the white fluffy Burmese cat that the late fashion designer doted on could be about to become the richest feline on the planet. The pampered eight-year-old puss has enjoyed a jetset lifestyle eating off silver platters since Lagerfeld “kidnapped” her in 2011 from his young friend male model Baptiste Giabiconi. Long before his death on Tuesday, Lagerfeld said he had made sure that she would go on living in the style that she had become accustomed to, with her own personal bodyguard and two maids. “Choupette is a rich girl,” he once told French television, hinting that had written her into his will. “She has her own fortune,” he added, thought to be around three million euros ($3.4 million) which she earned with him doing adverts for a German car firm and a Japanese cosmetics brand. “If anything happens the person who looks after her will not go without,” said Lagerfeld, who designed for Chanel, Fendi and his own brand right up to his death aged 85. Choupette – who the designer they called the Kaiser compared to the enigmatic star Greta Garbo – is something of a cult figure in the fashion world, with more than 170,000 followers on social media. Published in Daily Times, February 21st 2019.