His face, retouched several times, has long been the talk of the gossip press. Jocelyne Wildenstein, nicknamed “the cat woman” because of her numerous recourse to cosmetic surgery, died Tuesday in Paris.
The death of this jet-set figure, married for 20 years to a wealthy art dealer, was announced Wednesday to Agence France-Presse (AFP) by her long-time companion. Lloyd Klein is saddened to announce the death of Jocelyne Wildenstein in Paris at age 79
he said.
Jocelyne Wildenstein was born Perisset in Lausanne, Switzerland, on September 7, 1945. Her birth year is, however, subject to controversy, with some media saying she was born in 1940, a confusion with the birth year of her ex-husband, Alec Wildenstein, she explained recently on the sets.
Welcoming the departure of a icon
Lloyd Klein specified that she died a few hours before New Year’s Eve on December 31, and that she was found in the suite of a Parisian palace where they had left their suitcases in August.
Initial reports from doctors called to the scene indicate that she suffered heart failure and died peacefully in her sleep
he said in a press release published at the end of the day.
A regular on the operating table
Followed by 1.1 million subscribers on Instagram, Jocelyne Wildenstein was known for her numerous facial cosmetic procedures and the legends surrounding her transformation.
Living between New York and Miami, she had recently given several interviews in France, where she looked back on her journey.
When you look in the mirror, it’s for yourself
she said, in response to a legend according to which she had resorted to surgery to please her husband or to look like a cat, a legend which earned her the nickname Catwoman (cat woman) in the Anglo-Saxon world.
Mon [ancien] Husband thought it was a really good ad to air during the divorce
she said in the fall in a program presented by Cyril Hanouna. At the microphone of the host Jordan de Luxe on the C8 channel, she declared that her ex-husband had notably spread rumors of operations with a surgeon whom she had never consulted.
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Jocelyne Wildenstein and her husband Lloyd Klein in 2015
Photo : Getty Images / Grant Lamos IV
A $3.6 billion divorce
The only daughter of a bourgeois family, she discovered New York high society by marrying this millionaire art dealer specializing in impressionism, whose surname she kept after their divorce, and with whom she had two children, Alec Jr and Diane.
By divorcing, she had obtained the sum of 2.5 billion US dollars
(3.6 billion Canadian dollars), which made it one of the largest divorces at the time, Mr. Klein said in his press release.
Passionate about animals and the African continent, she shared this interest with Alec Wildenstein (died in 2008), whom she met during a lion hunt. The couple had become involved in developing a ranch in Kenya to care for wild animals.
During the 20 years she lived together with her ex-husband, she had collaborated with him professionally in the sale of paintings and in the development of private art collections. After her divorce, she continued to organize art exhibitions in New York.
