‘Cat Lady’ Jocelyn Wildenstein shared a gorgeous throwback photo on Saturday, offering a rare glimpse of her natural beauty before her dramatic transformation.
The 82-year-old Swiss socialite, who recently posed for an exclusive photoshoot for DailyMail.com in Miami, took it upon herself Instagram to send a heartfelt birthday greeting to her daughter Diane.
In the photo, the blonde beauty exudes elegance and glamour in a chic kaftan, while holding her toddler on her lap.
Her face seems a world away from the striking features that have kept her in the spotlight and earned her the iconic nickname “cat.”
The social media post comes after Jocelyn claimed she was broke after losing out on a $100 million divorce settlement.
‘Catwoman’ Jocelyn Wildenstein shared a stunning throwback photo on Saturday, offering a rare glimpse of her natural beauty before her dramatic transformation
The 82-year-old Swiss socialite was spotted here in Miami earlier this month
That also comes after she was spotted last week enjoying a lovely summer vacation in Miami Beach with her fiancé Lloyd Klein.
The Swiss socialite happily posed for photos for DailyMail.com on Thursday as she sunbathed on the VIP loungers at the five-star luxury 1 Hotel South Beach, at one point even snuggling up to her younger boyfriend, 56.
Wildenstein, who lives in New York but has kept a relatively low profile in recent years, was recognizable by her famous sphinx-like appearance and voluminous blond mane.
She wore a black, low-cut swimsuit and wore dark, large sunglasses with it.
The lavish getaway seems a far cry from the financial troubles she says she faced after filing for bankruptcy six years ago.
Wildenstein gave a rare interview last summer in which she claimed she was broke and had no income for eight years after her ex-husband’s family cut off the nine-figure annual benefit she had been receiving following her 1999 divorce.
The reclusive socialite received $2.5 billion in the settlement, with an additional $100 million to be distributed each year thereafter, after she alleged her husband, billionaire businessman Alec N. Wildenstein, had been unfaithful.
In a June 2023 interview with The Sunday newspaperShe claimed that Alec, who died in 2008, blamed her for their failed marriage, saying he no longer recognised his wife because of her extensive plastic surgeries that earned her her famous nickname.
The Swiss socialite, who recently posed for an exclusive photoshoot for DailyMail.com in Miami, posted a heartfelt birthday greeting to her daughter Diane on Instagram
‘Catwoman’ Jocelyn Wildenstein was spotted enjoying a lavish beach vacation in Miami Beach last week with her long-term fiancé Lloyd Klein
The Swiss socialite, 82, happily posed for photos by DailyMail.com as she sunbathed on the VIP loungers at the five-star luxury 1 Hotel South Beach on Thursday
Wildenstein, who lives in New York but has kept a relatively low profile in recent years, was recognizable for her famous sphinx-like looks and voluminous blond mane. At one point, she was seen snuggling up to her younger boyfriend, 56
“I have a big problem with my settlement,” she told the newspaper as she and her fiancé a new HBO docuseries about her life was filmed.
‘They have been completely shutting me out for eight years.’
Jocelyn first met Alec in 1977 at his family’s Ol Jogi ranch, north of Nairobi, when she was on safari with friends.
The two had two children, Diane and Alec Jr., and lived comfortably in their Manhattan penthouse with a separate family compound in the British Virgin Islands and the family estate in Africa.
But after 20 years of marriage, Jocelyn says, she called it quits because of her husband’s extramarital affairs.
“It became too obvious,” she told The Sunday Times. “It was young girls going to the same restaurants as us. There was no discretion, nothing.”
During the divorce proceedings, Jocelyn alleges, Alec began spreading stories about her having plastic surgery to “win the divorce” and “even hired a publicist and paid a plastic surgeon to certify that I had completely changed my face.”
“He couldn’t say I betrayed him; I never betrayed him,” said Jocelyn, who claimed her ex-husband once said, “She’s become a monster… I don’t recognize her.”
“He blamed me,” Jocelyn said.
However, there were rumors that Alec, a well-known cat lover, had encouraged his wife to have surgery to look more feminine.
Wildenstein has made headlines in recent years for her high-profile divorce, her feline appearance and once for the attack on her boyfriend in 2016 (pictured)
Jocelyn rose to international fame after her divorce from Alec, a famous art dealer, right, in the 1990s. She claims his infidelity led her to file for divorce
Jocelyn won a $2.5 billion divorce settlement with a $100 million annual payment thereafter. But the payments stopped in 2015 when his family cut her off, she says
Jocelyn Wildenstein, 82, first met Alec Wildenstein on safari in Africa. She is pictured here at age 15, before undergoing extensive plastic surgery
He denied these claims at the time in an interview with Vanity Fair.
“She was crazy,” Alec insisted. “I was always the last to find out.”
“She thought she could fix her face like a piece of furniture,” he claimed. “Skin doesn’t work that way. But she wouldn’t listen.”
However, Jocelyn won the lawsuit, settling for $2.5 billion and being guaranteed $100 million a year thereafter, “to continue the lifestyle and work of the past 20 years.”
She was also allowed to keep her ex-husband’s surname.
But her happiness came to an end in 2015, when Alec’s family decided to stop her settlement payments.
Three years later, she filed for bankruptcy.
At the time, The Sunday Times reported that Jocelyn had set her current account balance to ‘$0’, while still having millions of dollars in assets, most of which were real estate.
Her three luxury apartments in Trump Tower were then foreclosed on and she now says she has no money left at all.
“Zero — nothing in eight years,” she told the Times.
Her French-Canadian fiancé, a designer, said she was making a docuseries to tell her side of the story and possibly make some money.
Jocelyn and her longtime fiancé, French-Canadian designer Lloyd Klein, are now filming an HBO docuseries about her life. The two are pictured here in New York City in September.
He called the HBO project “her answer” to the public, who closely follow her life and her infamous plastic surgeries.
She is also planning a reality series produced by the team behind Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
“Jocelyn wants to tell the story in her own voice,” he said, and Wildenstein added, “I’ve never been in public. That’s not my nature.”
But Klein also told the newspaper that he has bigger plans for his fiancée: “I want to do a film series about Jocelyn’s life, and I would love to have Jennifer Lawrence play the role of young Jocelyn,” he said, adding that he would choose Rami Malek for the role of Alec.