Swiss socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein, also known as 'Cat Woman' for her plastic surgeries, has died at the age of 79.
"It is with a heavy heart and great sadness that Lloyd Klein announces the unexpected death of his beloved fiancee and longtime companion Jocelyn Wildenstein," the statement sent to AFP said.
Wildenstein died in her sleep at her home in Paris, late on the afternoon of December 31, 2024.
Klein tried to wake her from a nap so she could get ready for New Year's Eve dinner, but she was unresponsive.
The initial assessment by doctors called to the couple's home indicated that she had suffered heart failure.
Born in Switzerland in 1945, Jocelyn Perisse became a New York socialite after marrying art dealer Alec Wildenstein, by whom she had two children. She kept his name after their acrimonious divorce in the late 1990s.
The plastic surgery aficionado, who has more than a million followers on Instagram, became known as "Catwoman" in tabloids for her cat-shaped eyes.
In recent months she has lived in New York and Miami.
For the last time, Wildenstein posted a video of her and Klein posing for photographers in front of the Ritz Hotel in Paris on December 23 to the sounds of "Last Christmas" by Wham!
"I've never wanted to change my face," she told French TV news channel C8 this fall, though she admitted she might have wished her lips were a little fuller.
She denied rumours that she had undertaken plastic surgery to try to keep her ex-husband.
Wildenstein received $2.5 billion from her divorce. Asked if she had found love again, she said she had found it with Klein, who is 21 years younger than her.
Klein and Wildenstein met during New York Fashion Week in 2001, when Lloyd presented her runway collection.
"Jocelyn was my best friend, my partner, my fiancée. She had a passion for life and possessed a sense of humor," Klein added. | BGNES, AFP
