In the 1990s, Jocelyn Wildenstein, often known as the “Catwoman,” rose to prominence due to her public divorce from art collector Alec Wildenstein.
After that, she didn’t speak with the media for twenty years.
Jocelyn recently turned 80 years old and made a comeback in the media. I advise you to take a deep breath before viewing how today’s ostentatious woman appears.
Under the name Jocelynys Dayannys da Silva Bezerra Périsset, Jocelyn Wildenstein was born in Switzerland in 1945. Her family belonged to the lower middle class, and her father worked in a sports store.
Early on, Jocelyn understood that she might advance socially by dating wealthy men. She started dating the Swiss film producer Cyril Piguet when she was 17 years old.
After their breakup and a two-year relationship, Jocelyn relocated to Paris. She had the opportunity to mingle with even more elite people there after falling in love again with Italian-French director Sergio Gabbi.
“Then, my life was altered. Although Lausanne is quite plain, I started to meet interesting, glamorous individuals there, Jocelyn once said.
Jocelyn had a gift for more practical things in addition to being strong at using her social talents. According to Wikipedia, she trained as a hunter and a pilot in Paris.
Additionally, she spent a lot of time in Africa, a place she would later grow to adore and frequently visit.
A paradise exists in Africa. You come across folks with various worldviews. They enjoy the excitement, she said.
Jocelyn met her future husband, Alec Nathan Wildenstein, an American wealthy art dealer and racehorse breeder, while hunting in Africa. During a safari in Kenya in 1977, the couple got acquainted.
On their first date, according to Jocelyn, they rode a motorcycle up a hill where they had their first kiss. Jocelyn and Alec were married in Las Vegas a year after going on their first date.
The marriage was surrounded by doubt from the start. In opposition to it, Alec’s father declined to attend the second wedding ceremony, which was performed in Jocelyn’s hometown of Lausanne.
He disapproved of marriage in general. My father conducts inspections. Alec said to Vanity Fair, “My father attempted to warn me.
The colorful and eccentric couple nevertheless maintained a happy marriage for 13 years and brought up Diane and Alec Jr. together. The pair moved into the 51-story “Olympic Tower” in New York City’s Midtown Manhattan district at the start of their marriage. They subsequently relocated to an Upper East Side townhouse.
Early in their marriage, Jocelyn developed an interest in plastic surgery, a trend that would come to define her entire life. She and her spouse underwent surgery for the first time in 1979. As a result of Jocelyn commenting that Alec’s eyes appeared “baggy,” he underwent a facelift.
Jocelyn, though, was the one who developed a fascination with cosmetic surgery. She reportedly spent millions of dollars on surgery to appease her husband, who adored huge cats.
Jocelyn quickly acquired the moniker “Catwoman” and “The Lion Queen” because it seemed like she went to great lengths to resemble a lynx.
The lynx, according to Jocelyn, who even kept one as a pet, “has beautiful eyes,” she told. Jocelyn underwent a significant facial makeover when she was dating Alec. Even so, she consistently claimed that some of her appearance was natural.
“These eyes — cat eyes — and high cheekbones are what you see in images of my grandma,” she remarked.
But after a while, it appeared that even Alec had grown weary of his wife’s excess and cosmetic procedures.
She was insane. I was usually the last to learn. She believed she could make her face look like a piece of furniture. That is not how skin functions. She would not, however,” he continued.
After Jocelyn discovered her husband in bed with a young Russian model in 1997, their marriage fell apart. The parties’ two-year negotiation process resulted in an ugly divorce. The media covered every detail, thus Jocelyn’s striking appearance did not work in her favor.
She was dubbed “The Bride of Wildenstein” by the media. It got so bad that Jocelyn had no choice but to engage Edward Rollins, the successful Reagan-Bush campaign’s national campaign director, to handle her PR.
Despite this, the acrimonious split made Jocelyn and Alec household names.
Children are obviously impacted by divorce in general, and this well-known example was no exception. When Alec cut off Jocelyn’s phone and credit cards, the couple’s kids stood by her. In addition, he fired her accountant and reduced her monthly allowance from $150,000 to $50,000.
Jocelyn ultimately obtained a record settlement of $2.5 billion. In addition, she earned a payment of $100 million every year for the following 13 years. A peculiar clause in the divorce agreement, nevertheless, prohibited her from using the funds for cosmetic surgery, according to the judge.
Alec received half of his father’s reported $10 billion fortune in 2001, so he had no trouble paying Jocelyn. Aged 67, Alec passed away in 2008.
Jocelyn made an effort to keep out of sight after the divorce. Although she was all but forgotten, she occasionally showed up, particularly when her French fashion designer boyfriend Lloyd Klein organized fashion displays.
Jocelyn and Klein began dating in 2003, and they got engaged in August 2017. With a 32-carat diamond, he made his proposal to the New York socialite.
The pair conducted a rare interview a year later.
When asked about his girlfriend Jocelyn’s unusual appearance, Lloyd Klein replied that he did not know why she was known as “The Catwoman.”
She never really made an effort to alter her appearance. She looked exactly the same in photos taken when she was 16 years old as she does now, claimed Klein.
Over the years, Jocelyn has spent almost $6.7 million on plastic surgery, but the lead character herself disputes that the procedure has altered her appearance.
Jocelyn claims that she actually resembles her younger self.
“When we are young, we have a certain freshness that we gradually lose as we age. However, you continue to see the same eyes, high cheekbones, and nose. The reporter asked Jocelyn if she thought she was more attractive.
At the ripe old age of 80, Jocelyn has seen a string of financial setbacks in recent years. She has reportedly had issues paying the mortgage on her “Trump Towers” condo, and she is also being sued for credit card debt.
Jocelyn last appeared in front of the public in 2019 during an exhibition that was part of Art Basel Miami Beach. She traveled there with her partner, Lloyd Klein, as usual.
However, there is speculation that “Catwoman” may be the subject of a documentary series, so perhaps we will see more of her in the near future.
Her representative, Brandon Cohen, said that the woman “now really wants to talk about her life, what inspired her, how she developed a business with her fiancé amid the crazy of their life together in New York.”
