ECCENTRIC billionaire Jocelyn Wildenstein has died at the age of 84, her partner has announced.
The socialite was famed for her extreme cosmetic surgeries, which earned her the nickname “Catwoman”.
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Lloyd Klein, Ms Wildenstein’s fiance, announced the tragedy to news agency AFP.
His statement said that she had died of a pulmonary embolism in Paris on Tuesday.
It said: “Her partner Lloyd Klein is saddened to announce the death of Jocelyn Wildensetein in Paris.”
The socialite shot to fame due to having extensive cosmetic surgery on her face, believed to have spent millions on facelifts, giving her high cheek bones and ‘cat-eyes’ that give her a feline resemblance.
However, she has previously denied ever having plastic surgery, or having a surgery addiction, but had vowed she wouldn’t stop going under the knife.
In 2023, she posted a photo of herself as a teenager as “proof” she always had high features, accusing people of photoshopping her to look worse.
Wildenstein and Klein had been together since 2003, four years after her messy divorce from Alec Wildenstein, a French billionaire businessman and art dealer who she married in a Las Vegas elopement in 1978.
The pair were together for 21 years before their marriage came to an abrupt end when she caught him sleeping with a model in their New York home.
He later threatened her with a gun during the altercation and spent a night in jail as a result.
In the aftermath, Wildenstein set a record for divorce settlements in the US, becoming one of America’s most wealthiest woman.
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She reportedly secured a £2billion divorce payment and £80million a year in maintenance – at one point owning three apartments in Trump Tower.
Wildenstein claimed to Vanity Fair that her high cheekbones and feline like features were actually due to genetics from her Swiss grandmother, though acknowledged having a facelift to appear younger for her then-husband.
But in the same Vanity Fair interview, done in 1998, ex-husband Alec claimed she was “rearranging her face like a piece of furniture”.
She met Klein in 2003 at New York Fashion week, and they got engaged in 2017.
The fashion designer proposed with a 32 carat ring which he said was worth “millions” and required security guards when she was not wearing it.
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