IT is the riddle that baffled followers of Jocelyn Wildenstein for decades.
What caused the drastic change in appearance that transformed the stunning Swiss socialite, who passed away at the age of 84, into the globally recognized ‘Catwoman’?
Known also as the ‘Bride of Wildenstein’, Jocelyn gained fame for her excessive reliance on plastic surgery, a habit that escalated following a groundbreaking $2 billion divorce settlement from her former spouse Alec.
Although she regularly refuted undergoing any surgical procedures – despite numerous expert opinions suggesting otherwise – she had previously alluded to the fact that the roots of her cosmetic fixation stemmed from the tumultuous final days of her marriage.
Billionaire Alec was said to be a lover of big cats, and pals feared her Lynx-like appearance was an increasingly desperate effort to please the Frenchman, who tormented her with numerous affairs.
During their explosive 1999 divorce, she also claimed her estranged husband “hated old people”, sparking speculation her numerous facelifts were a tragic attempt to recapture her youth.
Alec rubbished the rumours, telling Vanity Fair: “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 wouldn’t listen.”
Whichever account was to be believed, Jocelyn’s image overhauls undoubtedly ramped up after the night she discovered a naked blonde in her marital bed, which proved to be the final straw in her relationship with Alec.
Their settlement sparked one of the world’s most infamous spending sprees as she frittered away millions on phone bills, designer gear and vintage wine – all while looking increasingly unrecognisable from the mysterious, bright-eyed girl of her youth.
Mysterious origins
Jocelyn was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, to a struggling department store buyer.
She moved to Paris in her 20s and spent time exploring Africa, but her younger years remain shrouded in mystery.
There were allegations that she had been a courtesan for Madame Claude, the famous Parisian brothel owner – something she and her former husband denied.
When asked about it, she replied: “Really? Well, they have to try to find something against me.”
Jocelyn was friends with Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and claimed to have been on his private jet prior to her wedding. He even introduced her to Alec.
The couple met in 1977 when Jocelyn visited the French millionaire art dealer’s Kenyan ranch, Ol Jogi – which later became her favourite international property.
The sprawling estate had 200 buildings, 55 man-made lakes, two huge swimming pools and 366 servants.
While Alec was smitten, his father Daniel was less keen and even asked his son’s ex-girlfriend Maria Kimberly to try to woo him back.
Nonetheless, the pair wed a year after meeting and during their marriage welcomed two children, Diane and Alec Junior.
Cheating discovery
Sadly, by 1998 their partnership had soured and their divorce soon became a notorious public spectacle.
Jocelyn claimed to have discovered Alec dressed in just a towel, with a naked 19-year-old blonde model in his bed.
In her version of events, the art dealer grabbed a loaded semi-automatic pistol and aimed it at her – at which point her bodyguards appeared.
In his, Jocelyn never made it upstairs, and he had mistaken her bodyguards for burglars and put the gun away when he realised they were with her.
Whatever the reality, Alec was arrested that evening, led away from the home in cuffs, and then barred from returning to the New York home shared by the couple.
After the incident, Jocelyn filed for divorce, citing adultery, and the proceedings that followed captivated the public as it laid bare their lavish spending and marital woes.
Jocelyn estimated that the couple were spending around $1million per month for around 20 years.
She once spent $10 million in a single spree at Cartier and owned a Channel dress, which had cost $350,000.
On top of that, they had a $5,000-a-month bill at the florists.
During the case, she admitted she was reliant on servants as she had no idea how to switch on an oven or boil an egg – to which the judge told her to buy a microwave.
Plastic surgery push
Alec claimed that his ex-wife’s first plastic surgery procedure happened a year after their wedding, when the couple got his and hers facelifts.
Jocelyn hinted she had the procedures because Alec “hates to be with old people.”
But she later rowed back on the statement, saying: “He never pushed me. . . . No, he all the time told me that I look very young.”
Friends increasingly expressed their concerns that she was trying to look like a jungle cat – one of Alex’s favourite animals – after she once said a Lynx had “perfect eyes”.
One told Vanity Fair: “I don’t think I’ve known her when she wasn’t healing from something.”
She later claimed that her feline looks were all thanks to genetics.
“If I show you pictures of my grandmother, what you see is these eyes— cat eyes — and high cheekbones,” she said.
Last November, she told The Sun: “I haven’t had plastic surgery.
“I am scared of what can happen, and I don’t like to have something heavy. Sometimes it is a bit heavy and terrible.”
However, surgeons have suggested she may have had repeated facelifts, eyelid surgery, chin implants and fillers, as well as possibly rhinoplasty surgery.
Financial rows
As her marriage crumbled, Jocelyn’s father died in March 1997, and she returned to Kenya, where he had been living.
She claimed she kept his body in a fridge for 14 days until Alec could arrive and attend the funeral.
Alec claimed she delayed the funeral because she needed to find an ebony coffin and “a perfect burial spot—all for the sake of appearance”.
A week after the funeral, Alec told her their marriage was over and that he was dating other women.
In fact, he was dating just one – Russian model Yelena Jarikova, 21.
She became a point of issue in the divorce, with Jocelyn claiming Alec “preferring to lavish our fortune on his girlfriend”.
Alec’s lawyers attempted to cut Jocelyn off from the family’s fortune, claiming she had signed a document in 1978 which stripped her of any claim.
During the disagreement, her monthly allowance was dropped from $150,000 to $50,000, her credit cards were cancelled and her personal accountant fired. It left the lavish spender furious.
Things became even more bitter as Alec and his family attempted to evict her from the New York home.
The family changed safe combinations, ordered the servants in her house to ignore her, and even barred her from her beloved Ol Jogi.
The African estate was where her mother Lillian was being nursed as she suffered from Alzheimer’s.
Despite both parties attempting to undermine the other, Jocelyn walked away with $2billion (£1.7 billion) – with one caveat. She couldn’t use it to fund any of her plastic surgeries.
On top of that, she was granted $100million per year for 13 years and she inherited her ex-husband’s estate following his death in 2008.
But the cash didn’t last long, as she frittered it away on clothing, art, jewels, and tens of thousands of dollars in huge annual phone bills.
Fiery love life
Jocelyn’s love life didn’t get smoother after her divorce, either.
In 2003, she started dating fashion designer Lloyd Klein and they had an extremely fiery relationship.
In 2016, Jocelyn was arrested after allegedly slashing Lloyd across the chest with scissors in a late night brawl.
Page Six reported she flew into a violent rage around 1.30am and was pushed into a closet by Lloyd to prevent her from doing more damage.
She was charged with felony assault with intent to cause physical injury with a weapon and a misdemeanour assault with intent to cause physical injury.
When asked about it by The Sun she brushed it off, saying: “Oh that, yes, it was exaggerated. But yes, we fight.”
The socialite was arrested again in 2017 following another violent spat in her Trump Tower flat after neighbours heard screaming and crashing sounds.
Cops found a shattered casserole dish on the floor, and the couple looking disheveled. Jocelyn had bruises on her neck and arms, while Lloyd had a cut on his forehead.
Bizarrely, the couple claimed they hadn’t been fighting – instead it was rough sex they were enjoying.
Jocelyn reportedly said: “Lloyd can be very passionate, he can be a little rough. That’s something I enjoy, otherwise I wouldn’t be with him all this time.”
Bankruptcy claims
Nonetheless, the couple were still together when Jocelyn passed away, and had recently been pictured on a loved-up outing.
Lloyd claimed to People Magazine that most of their fights had been about Jocelyn’s “financial duress”.
In 2018, she filed for bankruptcy, claiming that she had no money in her accounts.
Three years later, her three flats in Trump Tower were repossessed. And in 2023, she told The Times that she was still broke.
Whatever the situation in her remarkable life, though, Jocelyn always remained defiant.
In 2018, she told Paper Magazine: “I have nothing to prove. In the end, I don’t care.”
