Lloyd Klein talks about his final moments with his fiancée Jocelyn Wildenstein.
Klein, 57, revealed to People who was with the socialite just before her death at age 84 on New Year’s Eve.
Wildenstein, nicknamed “Catwoman” because of her cosmetic surgeries that altered her appearance over the years, died “peacefully” in her sleep, her longtime partner told the publication.
“We had a nice happy hour that same night and we were getting ready for the new year, and we took a little nap just to look nice before we got dressed,” Klein recalled.
“We were taking a nap and when I (woke up) I said, ‘Jocelyn, we have to wake up, we have to get dressed,’ and she was cold and dead,” he added.
‘It’s very sad. “It’s very sad,” the French couturier continued somberly. “It’s very sad to go to bed with your other half, whom I’ve known for 21 years, expecting to celebrate New Year’s Eve and finding it cold.”
Lloyd Klein, 57, opened up about his final moments with fiancée Jocelyn Wildenstein while speaking to People following his death at age 84 on New Year’s Eve; seen together in 2015 in New York
Klein claimed Wildenstein suffered from phlebitis, a condition in which blood vessels become inflamed, according to WebMD.
Sometimes the condition can lead to life-threatening blood clots.
“Due to his phlebitis, his legs were very, very swollen, his blood was blocked and there was no oxygen to his brain,” Klein said.
AFP previously reported that Wildenstein had died of a pulmonary embolism, which is when a blood clot blocks blood flow to the lungs.
According to the Mayo Clinic, the fatal disease is usually caused by blood clots in the legs that travel to the lungs.
Klein added that Wildenstein’s grandmother had also suffered from phlebitis, but that the condition did not negatively affect her Christmas celebrations and said that she was otherwise in “impeccable health.”
He recalled that “everything was fine” in his final days with his fiancée, and said that Wildenstein, who had been spending time with him in Paris, was “very happy” and “on top of his game” at the time. .
Wildenstein was last seen looking healthy on December 18 in Paris with Klein.
Klein said Wildenstein died “peacefully” in his sleep after taking a nap before the New Year’s festivities; photographed in September 2022 in New York
‘We were taking a nap and when I (woke up) I said, ‘Jocelyn, we have to wake up, we have to get dressed,’ and she was cold and dead,’ he said; photographed in 2019 in Miami, Florida
Klein said Wildenstein had suffered from phlebitis, or inflammation of the blood vessels. AFP reported that he died of a pulmonary embolism, in which a blood clot blocks circulation to the lungs; photographed together in May 2023 in Los Angeles
The star smiled at viewers while wearing a leather jacket, leggings and boots while wearing black sunglasses and styling her blonde hair in soft waves over her shoulders.
Following her divorce from Alec N. Wildenstein, Jocelyn began dating Klein in 2003.
The two later got engaged, but have had a rocky relationship over the years.
In 2016, Wildenstein was arrested for slashing Klein’s face with scissors during a fight at their Trump Tower apartment.
Klein was subsequently arrested days later for robbery and assault after he allegedly attempted to retrieve some of his belongings from Wildenstein’s apartment.
But the couple later reunited.
The Swiss-born socialite, who had more than 1 million followers on Instagram, described herself as an “art dealer.”
She came from humble beginnings but married a French-born American billionaire in the 1970s.
He recalled that “everything was fine” in his final days with his fiancée, and said that Wildenstein, who had been spending time with him in Paris, was “very happy” and “on top of his game” at the time. ; seen in May 2023 in Los Angeles
Here she is seen at a much younger age while hugging a child.
But the two made headlines just over two decades later with their messy divorce.
She became one of the richest people on the planet after her divorce, which left her with more than $2 billion, plus millions more annually.
But somehow she managed to lose it all after years of retouching her face and spending on countless luxuries.
The socialite was married to the late art dealer and billionaire Alec N. Wildenstein, who was the son of French art dealer and horse breeder Daniel Wildenstein.
His family presided over Wildenstein & Co., an influential art dealer based in Paris.
while talking to The London TimesJocelyn described how she became fascinated by Africa and its wildlife after finding a box of illustrated books about the continent when she was a child.
Later, she developed an interest in hunting and wildlife, which led her to the Wildenstein family ranch, Ol Jogi, located in Kenya.
There, Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi arms dealer, introduced her to Alec on a safari.
Wildenstein was previously married to Alec N. Wildenstein. They met on his family’s African ranch in 1977 before eloping to Las Vegas in 1978; photographed in 2000 in Paris
Jocelyn lived a life of luxury with Wildenstein, but they divorced in 2000, reportedly after she discovered his infidelities. He won a staggering $2.5 billion in the divorce, plus $100 million to be paid annually for 13 years; photographed in 1997 in Manhattan
But the lion-faced socialite squandered her fortune on extravagant purchases. He also claims that a painting that was part of his trust turned out to be a forgery, while another was auctioned for tens of millions less than expected; seen in 2017 in New York
Jocelyn remembered how Alec decided to kill a lion that had been killing a nearby antelope, so she accompanied him on a pre-dawn mission.
She told how, after her future husband took down the lion with a single shot, plus a second for good measure, they ate part of the animal as a kind of trophy and rubbed its blood on their necks.
“You have to eat a part of the heart of your game,” he said. ‘He’s a legend. Perhaps to take the power of the lion.
But in the ’90s, Jocelyn was completely unrecognizable after her face was reportedly transformed due to numerous cosmetic surgeries.
They left her with slanted cat eyes, a prominent chin and exaggerated cheekbones, which some have compared to the face of a lion.
Despite the obvious change in her appearance, Wildenstein at one point bizarrely claimed that she had never had plastic surgery.
Alec commented on her face. She told Vanity Fair: “I was crazy.” I would always find out in the end. I was thinking I could fix his face like it was a piece of furniture. Skin doesn’t work that way. But she didn’t want to listen.
Wildenstein responded by saying he “hired a publicist and paid a plastic surgeon to certify that I had completely changed my face” to win the divorce, he claimed.
Wildenstein was arrested for assault in 2016 after slashing Klein’s face with scissors, and he was arrested for robbery and assault days later while allegedly trying to steal his belongings from her apartment. But the two reunited and are together to this day; seen in 2017 in New York
More recently he admitted to having undergone some procedures, although he downplayed their impact.
After years of excessive spending and seemingly endless cosmetic procedures, Alec filed for divorce in 1999, although Jocelyn has said that she was the first to decide to end the marriage due to her husband’s infidelities.
Although she filed for divorce in Switzerland, where Jocelyn was less likely to get a meaningful divorce settlement, she ended up receiving what should have been a windfall: about $2.5 million.
On top of that, her ex-husband would pay her $100 million a year for 13 years, and later his estate after his death in 2008 at age 67.
However, her ex-husband’s family cut off payments in 2015.
Despite obtaining more wealth than most people could imagine, Wildenstein managed to squander it through extravagant purchases of clothing, jewelry, art, and even tens of thousands of dollars in annual phone bills.
In 2018, she told Page Six that the vast majority of her assets disappeared because one of the paintings that was part of the trust created for her in the divorce agreement, attributed to Diego Velázquez, turned out to be a forgery, while a Cézanne, which Expected to be auctioned for around $35, it only sold for $4.7 million.