Socialite dubbed ‘Bride of Wildenstein’ for extreme plastic surgery dies aged 84

Jocelyn Wildenstein, who has died aged 84, hit the headlines in 1997 during her divorce from her wealthy art collector husband, Alec Wildenstein, because of her addiction to cosmetic surgery, the decidedly scary consequences of which led to her being given the nickname “the Bride of Wildenstein”.

Jocelyn’s story had truly tragic elements. Her devotion to extreme plastic surgery began when, some years married and with two children, she began to fear that her husband (who “hated old people”, she claimed), was losing interest in her.

Hoping to win back his affections, she embarked on a series of procedures to “improve” her looks. These included an unknown number of collagen injections to her lips, cheeks and chin, along with at least seven facelifts and drastic eye reconstruction surgery. By the end, her skin was stretched so tightly over her face that she could barely blink and her lips so stuffed with collagen they looked like rubber.

Jocelyn Wildenstein conceived the notion that her husband might find her more attractive if she became “more feline”.Credit: Internet

“I don’t think I’ve known her when she wasn’t healing from something,” a friend recalled.

Alec had an interest in exotic wild cats, which he hunted on his 27000-hectare ranch in Kenya, and Jocelyn conceived the bizarre notion that he might find her more attractive if she became “more feline”. To achieve the desired effect, she even had her pigment darkened.

Unfortunately, the treatment (costing a reported £2 million in total) had the opposite effect of that intended. The first time Alec saw his newly sculpted wife, he was said to have screamed in horror.

Jocelyn in New York in 2004.Credit: Getty Images

“She seems to think that you fix a face the same way you fix a house,” he complained later in court.

But Jocelyn took his reaction as evidence that she had not gone far enough. When she returned to her plastic surgeon for further treatment, patients in his waiting room were said to have fled, fearful that they might end up the same way.

Things went from bad to worse. One day, in June 1997, she returned from a trip to Kenya and turned up unannounced with two bodyguards at her New York townhouse, only to find her husband in bed with a 19-year-old Russian model. As Jocelyn marched into the room, a hysterical Alec seized his Smith & Wesson and threatened to shoot her.

The rest of their relationship was played out in the courts.

She was born Jocelyne Alice Perisse into a middle-class family in Lausanne, Switzerland, on August 5, 1940. Blonde and Nordic-looking as a young woman, she set her heart on snaring a rich husband and, to this end, gained her entree into the international jet set by learning to fly and shoot big game.

Her opportunity came in 1977 when Saudi Mr Fixit Adnan Khashoggi invited her to visit his Kenyan ranch and arranged for her to go on a dawn lion hunt with his neighbour, Alec Wildenstein, heir to a $US10 billion art fortune. So impressed was Alec with Jocelyn’s lion-hunting skills that he asked her out for a motorcycle ride through his estate the next day. Within a year, he had proposed. They married at a lavish ceremony in Las Vegas in 1978, after which Jocelyn embarked on her career as a society wife.

While Alec managed the affairs of the art business and his Kenyan estate, Jocelyn busied herself with the upkeep and maintenance of their many houses around the world, including a Paris apartment, a Caribbean beach estate, a chateau in France and another house in Lausanne. Their marital base was a five-storey New York townhouse, which contained a hugely valuable art collection and indoor swimming pool, along with an army of servants, and five pure-bred greyhounds and a rare monkey that Alec had bought his wife as pets.

Their favourite possession was the 27000-hectare Ol-Jogi ranch in Kenya, which they turned into a sort of African Versailles, importing herds of giraffe, bison, leopard, lion and white rhino, some brought up from South Africa, and building 120 miles of road, 55 artificial lakes, a swimming pool with rocks and waterfalls, a golf course, a racetrack, and a tennis court with floodlights so bright it was said they could be seen from most of Kenya.

The Wildenstein townhouse in Manhattan, New York.

Jocelyn also kept a menagerie of big cats, including a pair of tigers housed in glass cages beside the swimming pool. Her passion for the animals inspired not only her later plastic surgery, but also the designs she commissioned for her collection of jewellery.

Determined that his wife should always outshine her socialite rivals, Alec spent lavishly on her wardrobe and bought huge quantities of jewellery. For 20 years, they spent at least $US1 million a month; in 1995 they got through $US16 million. Jocelyn paid $US350,000 for one Chanel gown and spent $US10 million in one go at Cartier. Their budget included a $US5000-a-month bill bill for floristry.

By Jocelyn’s account, Alec was a difficult man to please. He was subject to fits of depression at the control his imperious father, Daniel Wildenstein, still exercised over him, and, after some years of marriage, his eye began to wander. By the time she decided to turn herself into a cat, Jocelyn had already had a series of more discreet nips and tucks. Indeed, she claimed that she and her husband had made their first trip together to the surgeons before their marriage for an eye-tuck and that he had, initially, encouraged her obsession.

The Smith & Wesson incident, however, left Jocelyn in no doubt that her husband no longer loved her. Alec, who claimed he thought he was being burgled, was arrested for threatening behaviour, hauled before the courts, and bound over to keep the peace. Jocelyn promptly filed for divorce on the grounds of his adultery.

Jocelyn Wildenstein claimed she was unable to make toast. Credit: AP

Alec retaliated by cutting off her allowance, blocking her credit cards, confiscating her limousine and ordering their staff not to serve her; he even confiscated her monkey. Refusing to take this lying down, Jocelyn countersued for a $US200 million settlement, as well as tens of millions of dollars in art treasures, various houses, and $US200,000 a month in interim support.

In court, Jocelyn cut a bizarre figure, her wind-tunnel features emerging from a tight black suit, cut above the knee, with a vivid gold neck-choker. But the public fascination with her looks turned into eye-popping astonishment after the judge asked her to outline for the court a typical month’s expenses.

“My husband and I lived a marital lifestyle that others cannot even imagine,” Jocelyn began.

After dilating on the hedonistic lifestyle of the billionaire trophy wife, she painted a sad picture of the plight to which her husband had reduced her. She needed a million dollars a month to run her household, she declared, because years of dependence on servants had left her with no idea of how to light the stove, make toast or boil an egg.

Her subsequent revelations about the dysfunctional behaviour of the notoriously reclusive Wildenstein family, in particular her portrayal of Alec’s father, Daniel, as a mean, overbearing patriarch who did not trust his own children, subjected the name of a great art-dealing dynasty to embarrassing public ridicule.

After a lengthy court hearing, Jocelyn was awarded tens of millions of dollars, including $US540,000 in back maintenance on the grounds that she had been unfairly cast aside by her husband. The judge ordered that she pay for further facelifts herself and advised her to buy a microwave.

She had to wait some time for payments to come through. Alec fell behind on the ordered interim support payments while he and the Russian model decamped to unknown parts. In 2018, she filed for US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, claiming she had nothing in her account, and in 2020 her three apartments in Trump Tower were repossessed.

After the divorce, Jocelyn was said to have found comfort in the arms of her lawyer, Kenneth Godt. From 2005, aged 65, she was reported to be dating 37-year-old fashion designer Lloyd Klein, who was recently described as her fiance.

“I hope it will last forever,” Klein was quoted as saying. “I have not met anyone like Jocelyn.”

Alec Wildenstein died in 2008. Jocelyn Wildenstein is survived by the two children of their marriage.

Jocelyn Wildenstein, born August 5, 1940, died December 31, 2024.

The Telegraph, London

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