He spoke openly of his adoration for her; she was photographed staring tenderly at him. Their bond was the stuff of fairytale.
The only odd thing about this otherwise unremarkable love story is that he was an aging fashion designer, and she was his cat.
Karl Lagerfeld, who died in Paris on Tuesday, aged 85, was best known as the legendary designer behind the luxury fashion house Chanel.
But in his latter years, he also gained fame as the adoptive parent of Choupette Lagerfeld, a Birman breed cat that came to stay one Christmas and never left.
Lagerfeld told CNN of his enduring love for Choupette in 2013: “There is no marriage, yet, for human beings and animals… I never thought I would fall in love like this with a cat.”
The designer agreed to look after the Birman for a friend, but grew so attached to the animal that he refused to give her back.
The cat’s jet-set lifestyle, traveling the world at Lagerfeld’s side, became social media legend; a tribute Instagram account created by a fan has over 120,000 followers, tracing her every move around the world.
She boasts her own bodyguard, personal chef and two maids who tend to her every need.
Lagerfeld designed a whole fashion collection based on her, called “Choupette in Love,” and Lagerfeld’s luxury fashion house Chanel put out a haute couture collection inspired by her eyes.
She was even the subject of a 2014 book called “Choupette: The Private Life of a High-Flying Fashion Cat”.
Just what will happen to Choupette following Lagerfeld’s death is unclear, although there will likely be no shortage of minders for one of the world’s most fashionable felines.
This article was updated to clarify that Choupette’s Instagram account is not an official Instagram account.
CNN’s Milena Veselinovic contributed to this report.
