Leila Pahlavi

Leila Pahlavi (Persian: لیلا پهلوی‎, 27 March 1970 – 10 June 2001) was a princess of Iran and the youngest daughter of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, and his third wife, Farah Pahlavi.

Leila Pahlavi
Princess Leila in 2001
Born(1970-03-27)27 March 1970
Tehran, Iran
Died10 June 2001(2001-06-10) (aged 31)
London, United Kingdom
Burial
Passy Cemetery, Paris, France
Full name
English: Leila
Persian: لیلا‎
HousePahlavi
FatherMohammad Reza Pahlavi
MotherFarah Diba

Early life

Leila Pahlavi was born on 27 March 1970 in Tehran, Iran. She was the fourth and youngest child of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the Empress Farah Pahlavi.

Styles of
Princess Leila of Iran
Reference styleHer Imperial Highness
Spoken styleYour Imperial Highness

In exile

Prince Leila was nine years old when her family was forced into exile as a result of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Following her father's death in Egypt from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1980, the family settled in the United States.

She graduated from Rye Country Day School in 1988, and went on to attend a state school in Massachusetts before going on to study at Brown University, graduating in 1992.

She spent most of her time commuting between her home in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Paris, where her mother was living. A onetime model for the designer Valentino, she suffered from anorexia nervosa, chronic low self-esteem, severe depression[1] and chronic fatigue syndrome.[2]

Death
Grave of Leila Pahlavi in Passy Cemetery, Paris, France

On Sunday 10 June 2001, Leila was found dead in her room in Leonard Hotel in London just before 19:30 BST by her doctor.[3] She was found to have more than five times the lethal dose of Seconal, a barbiturate, which is used to treat insomnia, in her system, along with a nonlethal amount of cocaine.[4] She was found in bed, her body emaciated by years of anorexia, bulimia,[5] and food intolerances.[6] According to a report on her death, which included information from an autopsy conducted by the Westminster Coroner's Court, she stole the Seconal from her doctor's desk during an appointment and was addicted to the drug, typically taking 40 pills at once, rather than the prescribed two.[5]

On 17 June 2001, she was buried near her maternal grandmother, Farideh Ghotbi Diba, in the Cimetière de Passy, Paris, France. At the funeral was her mother, Empress Farah, the imperial family of Iran, as well as members of the former French royal family and Frederic Mitterrand, the nephew of the late French President François Mitterrand.[7]

On 4 January 2011, her brother Ali-Reza Pahlavi was found dead at his home in Boston, Massachusetts, from an apparent suicide.[8]

Ancestry

References
  1. Sabety, Setareh (19 June 2001). "Diana not: Serious soul-searching about our collective identity crisis". Iranian.com. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
  2. "Leila Pahlavi; Deposed Shah's Daughter". Los Angeles Times. 12 June 2001. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
  3. "Shah's daughter found dead". BBC News. 12 June 2001. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
  4. Tweedie, Neil (26 July 2001). "Shah's daughter stole to fuel her drug habit". The Times. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  5. Tweedie, Neil (26 July 2001). "Shah's daughter stole to fuel her drug habit". Telegraph. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  6. Hewitt, Bill (16 July 2011). "Burden of Grief". people.com. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  7. "Shah's daughter laid to rest". BBC News. 17 June 2001. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
  8. "Son of former shah of Iran commits suicide". CNN. 4 January 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
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