The oldest verified person ever to have lived is Jeanne Louise Calment, who was 122 years old when she passed away in Arles, southern France, in 1997. Sceptics began to question her longevity and speculated that Jeanne had actually died decades earlier, and that her daughter Yvonne had assumed her mother’s identity for tax reasons.
Fast forward to 2021, and ‘super recogniser’ Kelly Jo Desborough scotched these rumours by analysing precise facial differences in known images of Jeanne and Yvonne.