‘Catwoman’ Jocelyn Wildenstein has died at the age of 84

Jocelyn Wildenstein died on Tuesday, December 31. She was 84.

Wildenstein’s partner, Lloyd Kleintold AFP that the Swiss socialite died in Paris while staying in a palace after suffering a pulmonary embolism, according to Paris competition. A pulmonary embolism is a blood clot that “blocks and stops” blood flow to an artery in the lung, according to the Mayo Clinic.

An “icon is gone,” Klein told the newspaper, noting that he is “pained” over the loss of Wildenstein.

Prior to her death, Wildenstein (born Jocelyne Périsset) made headlines for her extreme plastic surgery that made her resemble a cat. The work led to her being nicknamed ‘Catwoman’.

After her first surgery in the late ’70s, fans began comparing Wildenstein’s eye lift to that of a pet bobcat.

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Jocelyn was also known for her marriage to a billionaire art dealer Alec Wildenstein. The two married in 1978 and divorced in 1999. Their breakup and legal battle received widespread media attention.

Alec told me Vanity fair at the time of their divorce that he had no say in how many surgeries his wife had to undergo, despite reports that he encouraged her to change her appearance.

“She was crazy. I would always be the last to find out,” he claimed The times. “She thought she could fix her face like a piece of furniture. That’s not how the skin works. But she wouldn’t listen.”

Jocelyn said The times in June 2023 that Alec “hired a publicist and paid a plastic surgeon to confirm that I completely changed my face” so he could “win the divorce.”

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However, it was Jocelyn – dubbed ‘the Bride of Wildenstein’ in the press because of her surgeries – who ultimately won. She was reportedly awarded $2.5 billion in the divorce.

She would have received another $100 million for each of the next thirteen years. “They will live happily ever after – but separately,” Alec’s lawyer reportedly said at the time The times. (Alec died in 2008 after a battle with cancer.)

Jocelyn moved in in 2003 with Klein, whom she met after attending one of his Lloyd Klein Couture fashion shows. The designer is said to have proposed to Jocelyn in 2017 at the Versace Mansion in Miami.

In 2023, Klein claimed that Jocelyn had run out of money. She later claimed that she had not received payments from the Wildensteins since 2015, resulting in her bankruptcy filing three years later.

“I have a big problem with my settlement,” Jocelyn said The times in June 2023. “They have completely cut me off for eight years.” Her lack of money led Jocelyn to star in her own HBO docuseries in 2023.

Jocelyn is survived by her and Alec’s children, son Alec Jr. and daughter Diane.