The incredible physical transformation of Jocelyne Wildenstein, aka the “cat woman”, died at 79

His face was infamous for his extensive use of cosmetic surgery. Jocelyne Wildenstein, nicknamed “the cat woman”, died suddenly in Paris, a few hours before New Year's Eve on December 31, 2024. It was her long-time companion, the French fashion designer Lloyd Klein, who announced the news to the AFP, this Wednesday January 1st.

Welcoming the departure of an “icon”, the latter reveals that she was found lifeless at the age of 79 in the suite of a Parisian palace where they had both settled last 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 statement.

Operations worth more than 2 million euros

This jet-set figure, who lived between New York and Miami, aroused fascination because of his incredible facial metamorphosis. It was because she feared losing the interest of her husband, the French art dealer Alec Wildenstein (who died in 2008), that the socialite allegedly resorted to surgery to seduce him again. Indeed, remembering her partner's passion for “exotic cats”, she sought to obtain a “more feline” appearance, thus hoping to become “more attractive” in his eyes, explained an article in the British newspaper The Telegraph in 2008. Legend which earned him the nickname “Catwoman» in the Anglo-Saxon world.

Unfortunately, these operations, which cost more than 2 million euros in total, had the opposite effect to that expected. Always according to The Telegraphthe first time Alec Wildenstein saw his wife after his transformation, he was said to have “screamed in horror”, unable to recognize her. “She seems to think that you repair a face the same way you repair a house,” the millionaire and father of Jocelyn Wildenstein’s two children would later complain.

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Seven facelifts, injections and eye reconstruction

Taking this failure as proof that she had not gone far enough, the Lausanne native will undergo a series of additional cosmetic procedures in order to once again “improve” her physical appearance. These include collagen injections in the lips, cheeks and chin, as well as at least seven facelifts and radical eye reconstruction. By the end, her skin was so tight she could barely blink, the article says. Telegraph.

A few months ago, on her Instagram account, Jocelyne Wildenstein shared a rare photo of herself before her operations, dating from the early 1980s. She appeared unrecognizable, with a face a thousand miles from her feline appearance, alongside of his daughter Diane Wildenstein.

A $2.5 billion divorce

In an interview given to Sunday Times in June 2023, she claimed that her ex-husband had tried to blame her for the breakdown of their marriage, stating that “he no longer recognized his wife because of her numerous plastic surgeries.” Interventions which, paradoxically, made her recognizable among thousands.

“My (ex-)husband thought it was a very good advertisement to broadcast during the divorce,” she confided in the fall in a program presented by Cyril Hanouna. She finally obtained the sum of “2.5 billion dollars”, affirmed Lloyd Klein in his press release.