On December 31, 2024, Jocelyne Wildenstein published what would become her last message. In a video posted on Instagram, the famous “cat woman” offered an intimate glimpse of her Parisian hotel room and her recent public outing alongside her companion, designer Lloyd Klein. The video was accompanied by a disturbing voiceover from Fanny Ardant, evoking melancholy and the end of things: “When things end, I believe that everything ends.” A strange echo of the tragic fate of Jocelyne, who died a few hours later of a pulmonary embolism. The 79-year-old icon, accustomed to the spotlight, seemed in this final sharing to offer a farewell imbued with poetry and mystery, without knowing it.
Born in 1940 in Lausanne, Jocelyne Wildenstein, whose real name was Jocelyne Périsset, made history with her spectacular metamorphosis. Destined for a quiet bourgeois life, she escaped at 17 to join Paris and the world of cinema with Cyril Piguet, before meeting billionaire Alec Wildenstein during a safari in Kenya in 1977. Their marriage in 1978 propelled Jocelyne into international high society, but also in a quest for physical transformation. Inspired by her husband’s passion for felines, she began bold aesthetic interventions, redesigning her face to adopt a feline look. These transformations, acclaimed by some and mocked by others, made her famous in the media landscape, as well as her tumultuous divorce in 1998, after a betrayal by her husband.
Death of Jocelyne Wildenstein, nicknamed “the cat woman”: her impressive physical transformation in images
A final message full of poetry and mystery
The video posted by Jocelyne Wildenstein shocked her many admirers. Followed by more than a million people on social networks, this woman, often reduced to her aesthetic choices, revealed a more introspective side. Her hotel room, the view of Paris and the Eiffel Tower, and the images of her last public appearance, where she seemed serene alongside Lloyd Klein. The latter was also the one who announced the death of Jocelyne Wildenstein, declaring to AFP: “An icon is gone.”
Article written in collaboration with 6Medias.
