The illegitimate daughter of a seamstress, she had moved to Paris at the age of 15, where, using the name Jeanne Rancon, she worked first as an assistant to a young hairdresser with whom she had an affair and later as a milliners assistant in a shop named A La Toilette
वडील जोसेफ हे आधी माळी काम करीत असत, काही काळानंतर हर्बर्टच्या जन्माआधी त्यांनी किराणा मालाचे एक छोटेसे दुकान सुरू केले तर आई सारा ही मोलकरीण म्हणून काम करून आपल्या कुटुंबाचा उदरनिर्वाह चालवीत असे.