£2BILLION BRIDE OF WILDENSTEIN I hit rock bottom.. I lashed out like an angry cat »» »»
I haven’t had a dime for years I took it out on the man I love SUNDAY MIRROR
surgery. Reclusive Jocelyn was first introduced to billionaire Alec by Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.
The pair eloped to Las Vegas in 1978 and she joined the family whose wealth was built upon the largest private art collection in the world.
The ruthless Wildensteins built their fortune with hundreds of masterpieces by the likes of Van Gogh, Caravaggio, Monet and Renoir, amid claims some of the paintings had been stolen by the Nazis during the Second World War.
Last month the French family were cleared of hiding artwork and properties worth hundreds of millions of pounds from the authorities after one of the biggest tax fraud trials in the country.
Jocelyn supported her “difficult” husband, raising their two children as he ran his stable of horses in the richest classic races. So eager was she to keep him happy that she reportedly began undergoing facial surgery to look more feline to please him.
At one point they had “his and her eyelifts”, and spent an estimated £ 1million a month on jewellery and designer clothes, including
£ 220,000 Chanel dresses. Waited on hand and foot by more than 350 staff, Jocelyn never learned to boil a kettle and had no idea how to switch on her own oven. But after 19 years of marriage she found Wildenstein in bed with 21-yearold Russian model Yelena Jarikova. A row broke out leading to the billionaire allegedly pulling a gun on his wife. He spent a night in jail and, on his release, he issued divorce proceedings – sparking one of the most bitter disputes in matrimonial history. The case caused a reported rift between Alec and their children after he cut off Jocelyn’s phone and credit cards, slashed her £120,000 monthly allowance to £ 40,000 and fired her accountant.
Cruelly, Alec, who died aged 67 in 2008, then criticised her plastic surgery, denying he was behind it.
He said: “She was crazy. I’d always find out last. She thought she could fix her face like a piece of furniture. Skin doesn’t work that way. But she wouldn’t listen.”
At one point in their divorce proceedings he pleaded poverty before it emerged the family owned a mansion in Manhattan, a French chateau, flats in Paris and Switzerland and a private estate in the US Virgin Islands, as well as their art.
Her settlement was made in 1999 but she claims she has received no money from the estate’s trustees since March 2015. “The life I once knew has gone,” she said.
“What I am owed runs into millions. They cut me off without warning. I cannot even afford to see a doctor.”
Her money troubles caused tension after Lloyd questioned whether he could continue to keep her in the style to which she had become accustomed.
He said: “I’ve never needed to rely on Jocelyn’s money. I’ve always taken care of myself – but it is difficult to keep to the life she once lived with the trust money now gone.”
Now the two are reunited, Jocelyn’s greatest wish is to regain contact with son Alec Jnr and daughter Diane, who still benefit from their father’s estate.
She says; “All the riches in the world do not come close to the happiness of having children and being a mother.
“I love my children dearly, they are my blood. I want nothing more to have them back in my life. There is no price anyone could put on that.”
All the riches in the world don’t come close to the happiness of being a mother JOCELYN WILDENSTEIN ON HER WISH FOR A REUNION WITH KIDS