Baroness Rothschild has urged women to “charm” men with their smiles and accused the #MeToo movement of making men “too soft” in a new interview.

Speaking with French media upon the publication of her new book, the 90-year-old Nadine de Rothschild urged women to rely on charm rather than education to get ahead in life.

Her new historical work, titled Tres chères baroness de Rothschild (Very Dear Baronesses of Rothchild), details the life of herself and six other women from the Rothschild dynasty.

"I wanted to marry a man who would give me an opportunity. I wasn't sure what category he would be in, but it certainly wasn't going to be the plumber," she said. La Baronne de Rothschild, also lamented the #MeToo movement, which she said had turned French men "soft" and women "charmless" while ruining people’s manners. 

"My advice is not at all fashionable," she told public radio station France Inter, earlier this month. 

"Etiquette is not in fashion either. But at 90 ... I can tell you that charm is part of success."

The veteran socialite was born to a working-class family near Paris. She was raised by her mother and left school aged 14 to take up a job in a factory before being scouted to model for painter Jean-Gabriel Domergue. She claimed that the celebrated portraitist had explained how there were two "categories of women: those who succeed and those who will never succeed." 

She said that category one possessed charm while the second did not.

However she stressed that she was not attempting to conflate charm and beauty.

"Charm is about smiling and being in a good mood. Beauty has nothing to do with it…I get up in a good mood, and I go to bed in a good mood, no matter what problems I might have."

The erstwhile cabaret performer also said charm was not to be confused with"sexual seduction," remarking: "That comes afterward."

When quizzed over whether contemporary women ought to rely on intelligence or “charm” she replied: "No I don't agree. There are women who have all the diplomas on earth but who don't succeed because they are bad-natured and are in a sulk from the early morning.”

She said that upon meeting her husband Edmond de Rothschild at a 1960 dinner party he was immediately captivated: When can I see you again? You are the woman of my life," he reportedly told his future wife: "I was seduced by his strong character, the masculine power ... He had a domineering side and that pleased me,” she explained.

She converted to Judaism before marrying the prominent French-Swiss banking scion in 1963 . 

Rothschild has previously compared her life as a spouse to that of a political "first lady", regularly organising social events with an array of star-studded guests from French presidents Georges Pompidou and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Israeli premiers including Yitzhak Rabin, Golda Meir, and Ariel Sharon.

The Baroness became a household name in France in her own right after publishing a guide to manners in the early 1990s. 

”It has been translated into every language except perhaps Zulu,” she quipped to Le Parisien newspaper.

Her husband died in 1997 and it is alleged that she subsequently refused a marriage proposal from US financier David Rockefeller.

She also complained about current French culture, lamenting that "there is no more" etiquette, continuing: "People don't wear ties any more, they live in jeans”.