Jocelyne Wildenstein, socialite known for extreme cat-like plastic surgery, dies
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Known as ‘one of the jet set’s most outrageous characters’, Wildenstein died in Paris hotel aged 84. The Swiss socialite and cosmetic surgery aficionado Jocelyne Wildenstein, sometimes known as “Catwoman” due to her extensive plastic surgery, has died, her partner said on Wednesday.
“It is with heavy heart and with great sadness that Mr Lloyd Klein announces the unexpected death of his beloved fiancée and longtime companion, Jocelyne Wildenstein,” the fashion designer said in an English-language statement sent to the Agence France-Presse news agency.
Klein said that “Mrs Wildenstein died peacefully in her sleep in the late afternoon of December 31st, 2024 in her … suite in Paris where the couple had taken temporary residence.”. Wildenstein, nee Jocelynnys Dayannys da Silva Bezerra Périsset, became a New York socialite after marrying the art dealer Alec Wildenstein, of the French art dealing and throughbred racing dynasty, with whom she had two children.
She was referred to variously as Jocelyne and Jocelyn in the English language media. She was born in 1940 in Lausanne, Switzerland, and died on 31 December at the age of 84. It was Wildenstein’s extensive self-remodeling to make herself look more “feline”, inspired by wild big cats – along with a reported $2.5bn divorce settlement and $100m each year for 13 years afterward – that caught the public’s attention.
