It’s over!
A jubilant Jocelyne Wildenstein became a free woman yesterday when she settled her bitter, two-year divorce battle with her billionaire art dealer-husband, Alec.
“It’s a big relief for me and my family, especially the children,” the ex-Bride of Wildenstein said after Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Marylin Diamond signed off on the settlement and granted her an uncontested divorce. “I am very happy.”
Alec’s lawyer, Raoul Felder, said “everybody’s gratified. They’ll live happily ever after – separately.”
The terms of the agreement are confidential, but Jocelyne, who was decked out in a striking blue Chanel suit with gold trim and jewelry, looked like the cat who swallowed the canary.
Her lawyer, Bernard Clair, said, “Jocelyne will be able to live a life where money is no longer a concern … Today represents a new beginning for Jocelyne Wildenstein.”
The cosmetic-surgery queen said she plans to keep living in New York, “do some traveling” and follow her dreams.
“I don’t like to stay doing nothing. I love being creative,” she said, explaining she plans to start her own line of perfume and jewelry and write her autobiography, with proceeds going to charity.
Also in court was Jocelyne’s pompadoured paramour and personal adviser, Ken Godt.
Asked if he and Jocelyne would marry, he said, “Anything can happen.”
Neither side would say which Wildenstein gets what property. In addition to a 66,000-acre Kenya estate, they also own a castle in Paris, a chateau in Switzerland and a townhouse on the East Side.
The judge warned Jocelyne the settlement is final.
“This ends this matter, now and forever,” Diamond said.
Diamond jump-started talks between the warring Wildensteins three months ago. One of the sticking points was Jocelyne wanting to keep the Wildenstein name – a battle she won.
Diamond granted the divorce on grounds of constructive abandonment after Jocelyne testified Alec told her in April 1996 he didn’t want to have “intimate relations” anymore.
Jocelyne, 54, filed for divorce a year later, and the case got ugly soon after, when she walked in on Alec in bed with a teen-aged model.
Alec, 58, allegedly pulled a gun on his wife of 18 years and the mother of their two grown children and ordered her out. Charges are pending against him in criminal court, where a judge issued an arrest warrant after he fled the country and failed to show up in court.
Felder said Wildenstein plans to come back to the United States and face the music.