'Catwoman' Jocelyne Wildenstein dies in Paris aged 84

Jocelyne Wildenstein has died at the age of 84. Born Jocelyne Périsset in Switzerland in 1940, she married Alec N. Wildenstein, who came from a wealthy family of art dealers, in 1978, having been introduced to him by the Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi at a shooting weekend.

This was an entry into global high society, but the marriage ended messily - although the upside for Jocelyn was her divorce settlement, which gave her more than $2bn, plus an annual income of $100m for 13 years. However, most of this fortune seemed to have been spent on luxuries and cosmetic surgery.

She died on New Year’s Eve from a pulmonary embolism in a Parisian palace, reported Paris Match.

The AFP news agency reported: “Her partner Lloyd Klein is saddened to announce the death of Jocelyn Wildenstein in Paris.”

Wildenstein spoke out recently to try to rubbish rumours that she had used plastic surgery to change her appearance over the years, ahead of her upcoming HBO documentary ‘Catwoman’. Speaking to The Sun in November, she said: “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.”

This, however, flew in the face of facts that a judge had forbidden her from using alimony on plastic surgery and that her husband had spoken about how she had attempted to deliberately change the appearance of her face.

She had over 1 million Instagram followers and described herself as an “art dealer”. She last shared a post three weeks ago, in Paris.

But Wildenstein is most likely to be remembered for her extravagance. A line in a Wikipedia page about her states: “Wildenstein is known for having lived her life in an extravagant manner. She once calculated her yearly telephone bill at $60,000 and food and wine costs at $547,000.”