She was the socialite known for her $2.5 billion divorce settlement and ‘catwoman’ plastic surgery.
On December 31, 2024, Jocelyn Wildenstein, died aged 84 after a pulmonary embolism, her longtime partner Lloyd Klein, confirmed, following a life defined by its dramatic tales and magazine spreads showcasing her unforgettable visage.
Born Jocelyne Périsset in Lausanne, Switzerland, on August 5, 1940, Jocelyn (she later dropped the “e”) married the French art dealer Alec Wildenstein in Las Vegas in 1978, having met in Kenya the previous year. She once said their first meal had been feasting on the heart of a lion the pair had hunted.
Together, they lived a high life from New York’s Upper East Side, as well as at a coterie of properties spanning the Château de Marienthal, a private Virgin Islands compound, and the 66,000 acre Kenyan ranch, Ol Jogi. In an average month, Jocelyn estimated in a 1998 Vanity Fair article, she and Alec would spend at least $1 million.
Her infamous surgery began early in their marriage, with a fated his-and-hers eye lift operation. “She was crazy,” Alec later said, of the woman who has also been dubbed “The Bride of Wildenstein.” “I would always find out last. She was thinking that she could fix her face like a piece of furniture. Skin does not work that way. But she wouldn’t listen.” Many believed she wanted to look like a big cat, like the pet lynx she kept and adored. Wildenstein always claimed her “feline look” came “naturally” and claimed never to have had facial alternations.
The two-decade long partnership, notable for Alec’s infidelity, came crashing down in the summer of 1998 when, Jocelyn claimed, she came home to discover a naked Russian model in her bedroom, before her husband chased her out of their 14-room Manhattan townhouse with a gun.
In 1999, the Wildensteins made headlines with the extraordinary divorce settlement which was rumoured to have been topped up with $100 million annual instalments for the 13 following years. Alex died in 2008, and Jocelyn has said the final payment money she received from the family came in 2015.
In later life, her fashion designer partner Klein revealed her fortunes had turned and by 2023 she had no money left — with her three Trump Tower apartments seized. It didn't stop her promoting her high life.
A regular at the upper echelon art and fashion soirées, Wildenstein was surrounded by the international A-list as recently as the Fendi fashion show in September 2022, where snaps shared to her 1.1 million Instagram followers show her cuddled-up to supermodels Kate Moss, Bella Hadid and Amber Valetta.
Below, Jocelyn ‘catwoman’ Wildenstein greatest looks:
