Who is Christa Badger? The Mars family reigns over a delectable empire, inheriting the candy throne of Mars Inc., creators of Snickers, Mars Bars, Milky Way, Twix, M&M’s, and more. This century-old company has catapulted the Mars family to a staggering fortune of $117 billion, earning them the title of America’s second-richest family dynasty according to Forbes’ 2024 ranking.
While the Mars family has often shunned the spotlight, keeping the company famously private, they’re beginning to emerge from the shadows. Described as “notoriously private” by Business Insider’s Cadie Thompson and with headquarters once deemed “anonymous” by former Guardian reporter Andrew Clark, Mars Inc. is now stepping into the public eye.
Let’s dive into what we know about the Mars family and their iconic brand.
Christa Badger
The saying goes that charity begins at home. But for Christa Badger Schmidt, charity begins at her Strafford boutique.
The Berwyn resident owns Christa’s in Spread Eagle Village. Traditionally, to celebrate the boutique’s anniversary, she would have a charity event to coincide with the celebration. In the past, the boutique has donated to such charities as the Philadelphia Zoo and Laurel House, a shelter for abused women.
But recently she decided to expand her philanthropic activity.
She wanted a more structured method for charitable giving and wanted her customers involved in helping her select the charities.
“I think this way it gives us more variety,” said Schmidt. “It gives us more exposure to charities that are out there.”
So she launched Christa’s Community. The initiative includes two anchor fund-raising cocktail events in the fall and spring. On Sept. 27 she hosted a ladies’ cocktail and shopping night to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
She is also organizing a three-month-long fund-raiser to benefit Toys for Tots, where customers can drop off new, unwrapped toys for disadvantaged children.
“It’s such a great charity,” she remarked.
Schmidt is a native of Virginia and majored in history at Duke University. She came to the Main Line from New York, where she worked as a manager at Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. She has owned her boutique for the past eight years.
But they have six children if you count their five dogs – two golden retrievers, two labs and a Jack Russell. She pointed out that when she met her husband, they each had three dogs.
“We’re kind of the Brady Bunch of animals,” the young mom pointed out.
In her free time, she enjoys reading and hiking. She just completed “Son of a Witch,” the sequel to “Wicked.”
.The Mars Legacy: Christa Badger
The Mars fortune is deeply rooted in their family-owned candy empire, Mars Inc. Founder Frank Mars faced adversity early on, contracting polio and being unable to walk to school. It was during this time at home that he learned the art of hand-dipping chocolates from his mother, Elva. In 1911, he started selling candy from his kitchen in Tacoma, Washington, setting the stage for a sweet legacy.
In 1902, Frank married schoolteacher Ethel G. Kissack. During the Great Depression, they became “social luminaries,” flaunting a $20,000 Duesenberg town car and owning two luxurious homes in Wisconsin and Tennessee, as per a 2008 Washingtonian article.
Their Tennessee retreat, the Milky Way Farms Racing Stables, was opened to the public for fundraisers and events. Ethel even had a horse that won the Kentucky Derby in 1940, cementing her place in the “mint-julep society,” reported Washingtonian.
The Mars family’s story is as rich and layered as their famous chocolate bars.
Mars’ son, Forrest Sr., joined the company in 1929.
They made the first chocolate nougat, setting the foundation for Milky Way Bars and Snickers. Forrest Sr. fell out with his father; in 1932, he was given the recipe for the Milky Way to start his own business, and he moved to England to do so.
Since then, the company has become known for the eponymous Mars Bar (at least in the UK) as well as 3 Musketeers, Twix, and M&Ms. More than 400 million M&Ms are produced in the US every day.
In 2008, Mars Inc. branched out from chocolate to gum when it acquired the Wrigley Jr. Company for $23 billion.
Besides confectionary brands, the company also owns food brands like Seeds of Change and Ben’s Original, formerly Uncle Ben’s.
In 2023, a bombshell CBS News article reported that Mars was using cocoa beans harvested by children as young as 5 in Ghana to make its chocolate products.
A Mars company spokesperson told CBS in a statement at the time, “We condemn the use of child labor. Despite our requests, CBS did not provide specific details of their investigation to Mars ahead of time in order for us to investigate claims of misconduct at the time of this report. We treat any claim of misconduct in our supply chain very seriously and we will thoroughly investigate once we have the necessary information and take appropriate action.”
Though the Mars name is most associated with candy, pet food is also a large part of the family business.
Mars’ prominent position in pet food began with the 1935 acquisition of a British dog food firm, Chappel Bros. The company bought Iams and two other pet food brands in 2014 from Procter & Gamble for close to $2.9 billion.
Today, Mars is a dominant force in both pet food and veterinary medicine, as the owner of major food brands Pedigree, Whiskas, and Royal Canin, and some of the biggest private American chains of veterinary hospitals, Banfield and VCA.
Unlike his parents, Forrest Sr. was relatively frugal. He raised his children the same way — while they attended exclusive boarding schools, they did chores at home to earn an allowance.
However, he did buy a 740-acre farm in Virginia in the 1940s, though he and his wife, Audrey, lived apart for a lot of their marriage (she kept a penthouse apartment at The Watergate), according to Washingtonian.
Forrest Sr. has been described as having an “extreme temper,” but was separately praised as “one of this century’s most brilliant and successful entrepreneurs” by Fortune magazine in 1984.
“He was an iconic leader — dedicated and highly respected,” a Mars spokesperson previously told Business Insider.
When Forrest Sr. died in 1999, his children — Jacqueline, John, and Forrest Mars Jr. — inherited a stake in the company.
Currently, 84-year-old Jacqueline and 88-year-old John co-own — but don’t actively manage — Mars Inc. They have the biggest share of the family fortune. Each has an estimated net worth of $46.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Forbes’ 2024 list of the richest person in every state identified Jacqueline as the richest person in Virginia and John as the richest person in Wyoming.
Jacqueline is the only sibling with a lifestyle “close to reflecting her billionaire status,” Washingtonian reported.
Like her family, Jacqueline maintains her privacy.
But, even so, Washingtonian reported in 2008 that she reportedly listed her estate in New Jersey for $2 million and maintains her mother’s Watergate penthouse. She also reportedly has a place called Stonehall Farm in Virginia, where she breeds horses. She initially had broodmares in Ireland before moving the operation to the farm in 2005.
In 2013, Jacqueline was involved in a car crash in Loudon County. She was driving her Porsche SUV “when her vehicle crossed the center line and hit an eastbound minivan,” according to authorities, reported the Washington Post.
“According to authorities, Mars told a witness who went to the scene of the accident that she had fallen asleep while driving,” wrote Caitlin Gibson of The Washington Post. “Tests revealed no trace of drugs, alcohol, or medications that could have caused a blackout … Witnesses said that Mars was not speeding or driving erratically before the accident.”
The driver of the other car lost her unborn son, a passenger died, and other passengers were injured. The victims urged the court not to seek jail time for Jacqueline, who pleaded guilty. She was ordered to pay a $2,500 fine.
