The heartbroken fiancé of New York socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein, known as Catwoman, says “she doesn’t deserve to be ridiculed” — and insists she was not broke when she died, despite reports to the contrary.
“She was certainly not broke, that’s not the case,” Lloyd Klein told Page Six.
Klein, 57, was with Wildenstein — who got her unwanted nickname for her extreme cosmetic procedures — for 21 years. “She was fabulous. She was the love of my life,” he said. “I miss her every half second and I still think I’m in a nightmare right now.”
He said Wildenstein was 79 — not 84 as reported — when she died on New Year’s Eve in her sleep at a Paris hotel from a pulmonary embolism.
In her contentious divorce from billionaire Alec Wildenstein in 1999, Wildenstein was awarded a reported $2.5 billion. On top of that, she was to be paid $100 million per year by her ex, who passed away in 2008.
But Wildenstein’s family cut off the payments in 2015 and she filed for bankruptcy in 2018.
Her three luxury apartments at Trump Tower were repossessed and, in 2023, Wildenstein told the Sunday Times she had “zero” dollars left in her checking account, even though she had millions of dollars in assets.
“I have a huge problem with my settlement,” she told the publication. “Since eight years, [Alex’s family] have completely cut me off.”
Klein said, “She had a very lavish lifestyle. There were bills to pay, and when they stopped paying her it was terrible. She would not have one problem if they had not given her a fake painting.”
Jocelyn previously told Page Six that the vast majority of her wealth had disappeared because one of the paintings that made up a trust set up for her in the divorce settlement, attributed to Diego Velázquez, turned out to be a forgery.
Meanwhile, a Cézanne that was expected to go for around $35 on auction only sold for $4.7 million.
Following her death, the Daily Mail reported that Wildenstein had been facing arrest in Miami, where she had been living, for ignoring multiple court orders related to an unpaid $344,000 debt.
Everything Wildenstein owned, Klein said, is tied up in assets and this will now be in the hands of lawyers, who will sort out what her children, Diane and Alec Jr., will get. Klein said he does not expect anything from her estate, adding that he has his own money.
“I just want dignity for Jocelyn,” Klein said. “I was not with her for the money. I am a top couturier. I have a beautiful list of clients from Jane Fonda to Joan Collins and Faye Dunaway and even Kim Kardashian.”
To maintain Wildenstein’s lifestyle, he said, “I was taking care of her as much as I could. I gave her everything I could to please her. We kept life beautiful, happy. If this is not love, I don’t know what you can call it.”
Klein said he has not talked to Wildenstein children since her death. Although Diane and Alec Jr. were reportedly estranged from their mother in recent years, Diane has taken charge of Wildenstein’s funeral, he noted.
“Jocelyn did everything possible for her kids,” said Klein. “She took them all over the world … She did spoil them — she was the best mother one would want to have.”
Jocelyn rose from humble beginnings in Lausanne, Switzerland, to marry Alec Wildenstein, the son of French art dealer and horse breeder Daniel Wildenstein, in 1978
The couple presided over Wildenstein & Co., an influential Paris-based art dealership, but embarked on a bitter divorce after Jocelyn allegedly walked in on her husband and a 21-year-old Russian model in her New York City bedroom.
Alec was arrested for “menace” after waving a loaded pistol at her (he was later released on his own recognizance).
“Jocelyn was a strong woman – she survived being publicly cheated by her husband,” said Klein.
But Alec helped fuel gossip about his wife by claiming she was obsessed with plastic surgery — telling Vanity Fair, “She was crazy … 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.”
Said Klein: “Alec said Jocelyn wanted to look like a cat. She never wanted to look like a cat, she already had that look … she had beautiful cheekbones and almond-shaped cat eyes.”
He believes Wildenstein was ahead of her time.
“Today, you walk in New York and Palm Beach or LA and everyone has done surgery. There are a bunch of Jocelyns there, but maybe she was the first one doing what she did,” he said. “Jocelyn doesn’t deserve to be ridiculed. People need to have respect for a human being, they say such nasty stuff.
Wildenstein was no fan of her nickname, but she found humor in it.
“It was nasty to call her Catwoman, but in the end we were laughing,” said Klein, “Once she called Cipriani Downtown and was trying to speak to an Italian to make a reservation.
“She said, ‘It’s Mrs Wildenstein, I’d like to have a table for two,’ with her heavy French accent … [the host] said, ‘Madam, how do you spell it?’” Klein recalled. After a lengthy back and forth, Wildenstein finally said, “‘I want the table for Catwoman!’ and [the host] said, ‘Oh yes, I know who you are!’
“She had a sense of humor that was out of this world.”
Despite the obvious changes in her appearance, Jocelyn was long adamant that her exotic looks came from her Swiss heritage and not plastic surgery.
However, in recent years, she admitted to having some procedures.
“We spoke about her looks openly. Sometimes for fun we would read the comments and just have some bubbles [champagne] and laugh,” Klein said, adding, “I don’t know if she was hurt.”
The pair, who first met in 2003 when Jocelyn attended one of Klein’s fashion shows in NYC, had been in Paris since September. Klein was napping next to her when he awoke to find she was gone.
“I tried to wake her up, but she would not open her eyes,” he said, “I said open your eyes … please, but she was cold.”
A few nights before her death, the couple had attended nighttime mass at a Parisian church and had a priest’s benediction. “I am happy she had that blessing,” said Klein.
He battled lymphoma back in 2014 and said they often talked about wanting to share a tomb, like the ancient Egyptians.
“We would make fun of each other. I would say, ‘You think you’re Cleopatra’ — and she’d say, ‘And you think you’re Mark Antony!’”
Klein would like for Wildenstein’s final outfit to be her favorite black Chanel dress, one that she wore in a Vanity Fair photo, and hopes to scatter her ashes at her ranch in Kenya, Africa, alongside those of her father and mother.
He will also organize a celebration of life for her friends and loved ones.
“All my happiness is gone,” Klein said, “but she did not suffer, and she died in full glamour.”
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