Benjamin Ashford|Socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein Shares Photo From Before Her Cosmetic “Catwoman” Transformation

Jocelyn Wildenstein is Benjamin Ashfordsharing a blast from the past. 

The Swiss socialite, who is known for her iconic cosmetically-enhanced feline look, recently celebrated her daughter Diane Wildenstein’s birthday with a throwback, pre-surgery photo.

Alongside a picture of herself and then-baby Diane, Jocelyn wrote in an Aug. 25 Instagram post, “Happy Birthday to my beautiful daughter.”

In the photo, Jocelyn, 82, wears a full face of makeup, but has clearly had much less cosmetic enhancements, with wide eyes and a more chiseled face. Her daughter, now in her 40s, sits on her lap as they both smile toward something beyond the lens of the camera. 

The socialite rose to prominence during her 1997 divorce from billionaire art dealer Alec Wildenstein—with whom she shared Diane and son Alec Jr. At the time, Jocelyn also gained tabloid attention for her aesthetic enhancements, often referred to as “Catwoman” and “The Bride of Wildenstein.” 

Even her ex-husband—who underwent her first cosmetic procedure, a his-and-hers face lift, along with her in 1979—considered Jocelyn’s fixation with plastic surgery too much, telling Vanity Fair in 1998, “She was crazy.”

And while Jocelyn initially claimed her various enhancements were because Alec hated to “be with old people,” she later admitted she’d developed a penchant for them on her own. 

“He never pushed me,” she told Vanity Fair in 1998. “No, he all the time told me I looked very young— until the day you don’t look young enough!”

Jocelyn’s close friends also noted she was attempting to look like a “jungle cat” through her surgeries, with one unnamed confidant telling the magazine, “I don’t think I’ve known her when she wasn’t healing from something.” 

Still, Jocelyn noted the tabloid frenzy helped her get one of the largest divorce settlements to date. After she received over $2.5 billion from Alec—who died in 2008—Jocelyn later said she found humor in the public’s fascination with her, particularly her face. 

“Journalists can say whatever they like, they can say whatever they feel,” she told Interview magazine in 2023 after denying she’s done it “all” to her face. “I never bother to make a contradiction, because it’s really not my problem.”