‘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 — who recently posed for an exclusive photo shoot for DailyMail.com in Miami — took to Instagram to post a heartfelt birthday tribute to her daughter Diane.
In the photo, the blonde beauty exudes elegance and glamour in a chic kaftan while holding her toddler in her lap.
Her face appears worlds away from the distinct features and extensive plastic surgeries that have kept her in the spotlight and earned her the iconic feline nickname.
The social media share comes after Jocelyn claimed she was broke after being cut off from her $100million 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 is seen here in Miami earlier this month
It also comes after she was spotted enjoying a lush summer vacation on Miami Beach with longtime fiancé Lloyd Klein last week.
The Swiss socialite was happy to pose for DailyMail.com photos as she sunbathed on the VIP lounge chairs of the luxury five-star 1 Hotel South Beach on Thursday, at one point cuddling up to her younger beau, 56.
Wildenstein, who is based in New York but has kept a relatively low profile in recent years, was recognizable by her famous sphynx-like appearance and voluminous blonde mane.
She wore a black, deep-cut one-piece bathing suit and accessorized with dark oversized sunglasses.
The luxury getaway seems like a far cry from the cash-strapped situation she previously claimed she was facing after being forced to file for bankruptcy six years ago.
Wildenstein gave a rare interview last summer in which she claimed she was flat broke and had not had any income for eight years after her ex-husband’s family cut her off from the nine-figure annual payment she famously secured in her 1999 divorce.
The reclusive socialite won a $2.5billion in the settlement, with $100million allocated for each year thereafter in the split, after she claimed billionaire businessman husband Alec N. Wildenstein had been unfaithful.
In a June 2023 interview with The Sunday Times, she claimed Alec, who died in 2008, had tried to blame their failed marriage on her by saying he no longer recognized his wife due to her extensive plastic surgeries which earned her her famous nickname.
The Swiss socialite — who recently posed for an exclusive photo shoot for DailyMail.com in Miami — took to Instagram to post a heartfelt birthday tribute to her daughter Diane
‘Catwoman’ Jocelyn Wildenstein was spotted enjoying a luxury beach getaway in Miami Beach with longtime fiancé Lloyd Klein last week
The Swiss socialite, 82, was happy to pose for DailyMail.com photos as she sunbathed on the VIP lounge chairs of the luxury five-star 1 Hotel South Beach last Thursday
Wildenstein, who is based in New York but has kept a relatively low profile in recent years, was recognizable by her famous sphynx-like appearance and voluminous blonde mane. At one point she was seen cuddling up to her younger beau, 56
‘I have a huge problem with my settlement,’ she told the paper as she and her fiancé filmed a new HBO docuseries about her life.
‘Since eight years, they have completely cut me off.’
Jocelyn first met Alec in 1977 at his family’s Ol Jogi ranch, north of Nairobi, when she was on a safari with friends.
The two went on to have 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’s estate in Africa.
But after 20 years of marriage, Jocelyn says, she called it quits, citing her husband’s extramarital affairs.
‘It was getting too obvious,’ she told The Sunday Times. ‘It was young girls and going to the same restaurants we went to. It was no discretion, nothing.’
During the divorce proceedings, Jocelyn claims, Alec started planting stories about her plastic surgeries to ‘win the divorce’ and even ‘hired a publicist and paid a plastic surgeon to certify that I completely changed my face.’
‘He couldn’t say I betrayed him; I never betrayed him,’ Jocelyn said, claiming her ex-husband once insisted that ”She became a monster… I don’t recognize her.’
‘He put all the blame on my face,’ Jocelyn said.
Rumors abounded, however, that Alec, a known cat lover, encouraged his wife to get the surgeries to make her appear more feminine.
Wildenstein has made headlines over the years over her high-profile divorce, her feline appearance, and once for attacking her boyfriend in 2016 (pictured)
Jocelyn rose to international fame amid her divorce from Alec, a renowned art dealer, right, in the 1990s. She claims his infidelity led her to file for divorce
Jocelyn won a $2.5billion settlement from the divorce with a $100million payment each year thereafter. But the payments stopped in 2015 when his family cut her off, she says
Jocelyn Wildenstein, 82, first met Alec Wildenstein while on a safari in Africa. She is pictured here at the age of 15, before she got extensive plastic surgery
He denied those claims in an interview with Vanity Fair at the time.
‘She was crazy,’ Alec insisted. ‘I would always find out last.
‘She was thinking that she could fix her face like a piece of furniture,’ he claimed. ‘Skin does not work that way. But she wouldn’t listen.’
Still, Jocelyn won the proceedings — taking home a settlement of $2.5billion with $100million guaranteed each year thereafter ‘to follow the lifestyle and the work of the 20 years.’
She was also allowed to keep her ex-husband’s last name.
But her good fortune apparently ended in 2015 — when Alec’s family decided to cut off her settlement payments.
Three years later, she filed for bankruptcy.
At the time, The Sunday Times reported, Jocelyn listed her checking account balance as ‘$0’ despite still having millions of dollars in assets — most of which was property.
Her three luxury apartments at Trump Tower were then repossessed, and now she says she has no money at all.
‘Zero — nothing in eight years,’ she told the Times.
Her French-Canadian designer fiancé said she was making a docuseries to tell her side of the story and potentially recoup some money.
Jocelyn and her longtime fiancée, 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 reply’ to the public, which has scrutinized her life and her infamous plastic surgeries.
She is also planning a reality television series produced by the team behind Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
‘Jocelyn wants to tell the story with her own voice,’ he said, with Wildenstein adding: ‘I’ve never been public. It’s not my nature.’
But Klein also told the paper he has bigger plans for his fiancée: ‘I want to have a movie series on Jocelyn’s life, and I would like to have Jennifer Lawrence as a young Jocelyn,’ he said, adding that he would choose Rami Malek to play Alec.
