You may not be familiar with her name, but you’re likely familiar with her famous face.
In the 1990s, when she was going through her public divorce from art dealer Alec Wildenstein, Jocelyn Wildenstein, better known by her nickname “Catwoman,” became well-known around the world.
After that, she did not give any interviews to the media for the next twenty years.
Jocelyn had her 82nd birthday not too long ago and has recently been seen in public once more. Before I show you how this lavish woman looks now, I want you to take a moment to calm down and take a few deep breaths.
Selena Marilyn De Ville/YouTube
A skilled hunter and pilot
Jocelyn Wildenstein was born Jocelynys Dayannys da Silva Bezerra Périsset in Switzerland in 1945. Her full birth name is Jocelyn Wildenstein. Her family belonged to the lower-middle class, and her father held a job in a sporting goods store.
Jocelyn quickly concluded that she could use her relationships with wealthy men to propel her up the social structure. She began a romantic relationship with the Swiss film producer Cyril Piguet when she was only 17 years old.
The relationship between the two sides lasted for two years before it ended, at which point Jocelyn moved to Paris. After she had found new love with the Italian-French filmmaker Sergio Gabbi, she was given the opportunity to socialize in even more restricted circles where she allowed change then. Lausanne is very plain, but I began meeting exciting, glamorous people,” Jocelyn once told New York Magazine.
Selena Marilyn De Ville/YouTube
Not only was Jocelyn skilled at making use of her social talents, but she also had a talent for things that were more practically oriented. According to Wikipedia, she became an experienced hunter and worked as a pilot when she was living in Paris.
She also spent a considerable amount of time in Africa, a region that she came to love and to which she traveled quite often.
“Africa is a paradise. You meet people who look at life differently. “They love the adventure,” she told New York Magazine.
In the course of hunting in Africa, Jocelyn meets her future husband, Alec Nathan Wildenstein, who is a rich art dealer and racehorse breeder from the United States. When the two first met, they were on safari in Kenya in 1977.
Jocelyn related that they went on a motorcycle trip to a mountaintop on their first date and then shared their first kiss there. Jocelyn and Alec went on their first date exactly one year before running away together to get married in Las Vegas.
Jocelyne Wildenstein poses for a picture on February 10, 1999, in New York City.
Photo by Evan Agostini
The marriage was greeted with mistrust from the very beginning of their relationship. The second wedding ceremony was held in Jocelyn’s hometown of Lausanne, but Alec’s father did not go since he opposed the marriage and did not want to attend.
“He was against marriage in general. My father checks things out. “My father tried to warn me,” Alec told Vanity Fair.
But despite their colorful and unusual personalities, the couple was together for 13 years and enjoyed a wonderful relationship during that time. Together, they brought up their children, Diane and Alec Jr. When they first got married, the pair decided to make their home at the ‘Olympic Tower’ in New York City, which is a 51-story building located in the Midtown Manhattan region of New York City. After that, they relocated to an apartment in a townhouse located on the Upper East Side.
During the early years of their marriage, Jocelyn became interested in plastic surgery, which would later become a defining trait throughout her entire life. 1979 marked the year when she and her husband had their first experience with surgeries. After Jocelyn observed that Alec’s eyes appeared “baggy,” he decided to get a facelift.
Jocelyn, on the other hand, was the one who developed an interest in plastic surgery. According to the Daily Mail, to make her husband, who had a passion for big cats, happy, she spent millions of dollars on surgeries.
Selena Marilyn De Ville/YouTuber
It wasn’t long before people began to refer to Jocelyn as “Catwoman” and “The Lion Queen” since it seemed as though she went to great lengths to copy a lynx.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Jocelyn, who formerly owned a lynx and kept it as a pet, claimed that “the lynx has amazing eyes.” Jocelyn went through a significant process of facial metamorphosis while she was with Alec. Despite this, she always claimed that a part of her appearance was natural.
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“If I show you pictures of my grandmother, what you see is these eyes — cat eyes — and high cheekbones,” she said.
However, after some time, it seemed that even Alec, the husband, was getting tired of his wife’s lavish spending and constant need for plastic surgery.
“She was crazy.” 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 would not listen,” he said.
Alec Wildenstein in 2004 (Photo by Michel Dufour/WireImage)
1997 was the year that Jocelyn found her husband in bed with a young Russian model, which finally led to the breakup of their marriage. The divorce was a difficult and drawn-out process that took place over a period of two years as the parties negotiated. The press revealed everovercelyn’s interested appearance did not work to her benefit in this situation.
Photo by Lawrence Schwartzwald/Sygma via Getty Images
She was dubbed “The Bride of Wildenstein” by gossip magazines. Jocelyn was compelled to hire Edward Rollins, the National Campaign Director for the winning Reagan-Bush 1984 campaign, to handle her public relations because the situation had grown to such a point.
Despite this, Jocelyn and Alec became well-known after their painful breakup.
Children are impacted in every divorce, and the high-profile case at hand was not an exception to this rule. When Jocelyn’s phone and credit cards were taken away by their father, the couple’s children sided with their mother. In addition to that, he reduced her monthly allowance from the previous level of $150,000 down to $50,000 and fired her accountant.
Arnaldo Magnani/Getty Images
A record settlement paid Jocelyn a total of $2.5 billion after it was all said and done. In addition to that, she received a payment of one hundred million dollars every year for the next 13 years. Nevertheless, the divorce contained an odd provision: the judge prohibited her from using the money to pay for cosmetic surgery.
Since Alec inherited 50 percent of his father’s fortune in 2001—which was estimated to be worth ten billion dollars in today’s currency—he had no trouble making Jocelyn’s payments. In 2008, Alec passed away at the age of 67.
After her divorce, Jocelyn made an effort to disappear from public view. She was almost completely forgotten, but she did make occasional appearances, particularly at fashion exhibitions that were organized by her boyfriend, the French designer Lloyd Klein.
Jocelyn and Klein first fell truly in love in 2003 and announced their engagement in August 2017. He used a diamond weighing 32 carats to make his proposal to the New York socialite.
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A year later, the pair gave an interview to Daily Mail TV, which is somewhat uncommon for them.
When asked about the unusual appearance of his girlfriend, Jocelyn, Lloyd Klein replied that he did not get why she was dubbed “The Catwoman.”
“She never really did anything to change her face. I have pictures from 16 years old where she looks exactly the same as today,” said Klein.
The Sun reports that Jocelyn has paid $6.7 million throughout her lifetime for cosmetic surgery; nevertheless, the main character herself rejects the idea that her beauty is the result of plastic surgery.
Jocelyn claims that she maintains the same appearance as when she was in her earlier years.
Lawrence Lucier / FilmMagic
“When we are young, there’s a certain freshness we lose with the years. But you still find the same eyes, the same high cheeks, or the same nose. I think I was more pretty,” Jocelyn told the reporter.
In this day and age, Jocelyn has reached the ripe old age of 82, but in recent years, her life has been filled with problems on behalf of her finances. It would appear that she has been having trouble keeping up with the mortgage on her apartment at the “Trump Towers,” and that she has also been sued for credit card bills.
NNoam Galai / Getty Images
The newest from Jocelyn Wildenstein
The last time we saw Jocelyn in public was at an Art Basel Miami Beach 2019 exhibition, where she made an appearance in 2019. She was joined there by her customary companion, Lloyd Klein. They’ve been married for 18 years.
“Lloyd can be very passionate, he can be a little rough. That’s something I enjoy otherwise I would not have been with him all this time,” Jocelyn says.
Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Baccarat
But there is a chance that we will see more of “Catwoman” shortly because there is buzz that a documentary series will be made about her amazing life.
“She now really wants to talk about her life, what drove her, how she built a business with her fiancé in the craziness of their life together in New York,” her publicist, Brandon Cohen, told Page Six in 2021.
Since 2021, Jocelyn has done her best to avoid the public eye; but, on January 8, 2023, in Miami, Florida, she and Loyd Klein were seen openly together for the first time in years.
Loyd Klein and Jocelyn Wildenstein are seen on January 08, 2023, in Miami, Florida (Photo by MEGA/GC Images)
The well-known character from the headlines cut a typically elegant figure and appeared to enjoy the meal with her fiancé, who is somewhat younger than she is.
Perhaps we will see Jocelyn again in the future, but until then, can we at least agree that she is an interesting person with a remarkable life story?
If you have any thoughts about Jocelyn, please share them in the comments below or on our Facebook page. Have you heard anything about her high-profile divorce? Don’t be afraid to tell us what you think.
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