Born in 1868, Ponte de Valga Pontevedra, Spain, to a poverty-stricken family, Caroline Otero ran away from home at the age of fourteen, finding jobs singing and dancing in the cafés and music-halls of Paris. At the age of twenty, Caroline found a sponsor in Barcelona who helped promote her dancing career in France. She soon created the character of La Belle Otero, fancying herself a Spanish gypsy.

Within a few years, La Belle became the star of Les Folies Bèrgere productions in Paris, triumphing season after season by covering her breasts with her own very real jewels. Her breasts became so famous that the twin cupolas of the Hotel Carlton in Cannes were actually modeled after them.

Like many of her rivals, it wasn't long before La Belle became more famous off her feet than on them. She was known for her frequent love affairs with powerful men including kings of England, Serbia, and Spain, the Kaiser, the Russian Grand Dukes, Peter and Nicholas, the Duke of Westminster and Gabriele d'Annunzio. Although never substantiated, it has been said men fought duels over her and blew their brains out because of her.

After entertaining troops during the First World War, Caroline Otero suddenly retired, purchasing a mansion in the south of France with the vast fortune she had accumulated over the years. With her beauty and fame intact, she lived a lavish lifestyle, squandering her millions in gambling casinos.

La Belle Otero died in poverty at the age of ninety-seven, in Nice, France, 1965, some forty-seven years after retiring from her extraordinary career.