The crazy life of billionaire socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein (2024)

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Jocelyn Wildenstein was born as Jocelynnys Dayannys da Silva Bezerra Périsset on September 11, 1955, in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Not much is known about her upbringing in a middle-class family in Switzerland other than that she was the daughter of a struggling department-store buyer.

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At the age of 17 her life changed — she started dating Swiss movie producer Cyril Piguet. She told New York magazine that after two years they moved to Paris together. "My life changed then," she said. "Lausanne is very plain, but I began meeting exciting, glamorous people."

She told New York magazine she had never intended to pursue a career, instead she had a "different talent." "I never worry for my career. I am very good at decoration. I am maybe extremely good at decoration."

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She later dated European filmmaker Sergio Gobbi for five years and spent a lot of her time exploring Africa, a continent she fell in love with. "Africa is a paradise. You meet people who look at life differently. They love the adventure," she said to New York magazine.

Her life as a socialite let her move in elite circles across the world. She met Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi — pictured here with his wife — through her love of hunting. He introduced her to her future husband, Alec Wildenstein, in Africa.

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On April 30, 1978, Alec and Jocelyn eloped in Las Vegas. But at their second wedding ceremony in Lausanne afterward, Alec's father, Daniel, was absent. "He was against marriage in general," Alec Wildenstein told Vanity Fair. "My father checks things out. My father tried to warn me." They eventually went on to have two children, Diane and Alec Jr.

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After one year of marriage, Jocelyn started to use her wealth for extensive cosmetic surgeries. She and Alec got "his and her eyelifts." According to a number of biographies, she continually changed her appearance to look more "feline."

According to the Daily Mail, she spent £2 million on surgeries to please her husband, who loved big cats. She kept a Lynx as a pet, telling Vanity Fair "the lynx has perfect eyes."

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Alec Wildenstein told 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."

In 1997, Wildenstein says, she found her husband in bed with 21-year-old Russian model Yelena Jarikova, which led to an altercation in which Alec allegedly pulled a gun on Jocelyn and spent the night in jail. Alec left Jocelyn that year, and divorce proceedings started immediately.

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The divorce was messy and dragged out for two years. Alec told Vanity Fair there were rumours Jocelyne had worked for Madame Claude, the Parisian bordello owner, as a courtesan at one point.

According to details in a long report by Vanity Fair, the divorce caused a rift between Alec and his children after he cut off Jocelyn's phone and credit cards, slashed her monthly allowance of $150,000 to $50,000, and fired her accountant.

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The press coverage of the case was bad for Jocelyn, which centred on her looks. Tabloids dubbing her "The Bride of Wildenstein" and "Catwoman." In response, she hired Republican campaign consultant and advisor Edward Rollins to handle her PR.

Eventually, Jocelyn was awarded a $2.5 billion divorce settlement and $100 million each year for 13 years afterward. However, the judge stipulated that she could not use any of her divorce payments for further cosmetic surgery.

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In 2001, Alec inherited half of his father's business empire, estimated at $10 billion. It included one of the world's largest private collections of art. It helped fund his alimony payments. Seven years later, however, Alec died at 67.

Since the divorce, Wildenstein has kept a low profile and is rarely seen in public.

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The only time she is pictured is when she attends her French designer boyfriend Lloyd Klein's fashion shows. They started dating in the early 2000s.

She was last seen in public in October, when she and Klein attended the "Jean-Yves Klein: Chimeras Exhibition" at Gallery Molly Krom in New York City.

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They are not pictured together often, but when they are it's usually at a high fashion or elite art event, which is where Wildenstein's long-term passion for "decoration" lies.