Nina Dyer
Nina Sheila Dyer was an Anglo-Indian model and socialite. Through her marriages, she became a wealthy Baroness, then a Princess.
Early life
Dyer was born on 15 February 1930 in British Ceylon. Her father was British tea plantation owner, Stanley Dyer, and her mother was Indian, making Dyer Anglo-Indian. She grew up on the tea plantation in Ceylon.Career
After moving to England when she was 20, Dyer took acting classes in Liverpool, then began a career in London as a swimwear model.English fashion houses considered that her high cheekbones and full lips looked "overly exotic" for British tastes, so Dyer moved to Paris. She found more success in France and became a favourite fashion model of French couturier Pierre Balmain. Dyer also became a socialite, mingled in international high society circles and attended glamorous parties on the French Riviera.
Marriages
First marriage
On 23 June 1954, in Colombo, Ceylon, Dyer married wealthy industrialist and art collector Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, known as "Heini", as his second wife. After the marriage, she was styled as Baroness. They had allegedly begun an affair whilst he was still married to his first wife, Princess Teresa of Lippe-Weissenfeld. Before their marriage, Thyssen-Bornemisza gave Dyer cars, jewels, one of four wild chinchilla fur coats in the world and two pet black panthers. One Valentine’s Day, he gave her Pellew Island in Jamaica as a gift. The couple had no children.After Thyssen-Bornemisza discovered the Dyer was having an affair with French actor Christian Marquand, he divorced her on 4 July 1956 in Lugano, Switzerland. They were married for ten months and she received $2.8m, $400,000 of jewels, a painting by El Greco and Thyssen-Bornemisza's château in France from the divorce settlement. Shortly after the divorce, in 1956 Thyssen-Bornemisza remarried to another British fashion model, Fiona Campbell-Walter.
Second marriage
On 27 August 1957, in the Khan family mansion in Collonges-Bellerive, near Geneva, Switzerland, Dyer married Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan. He was the son of Sir Sultan Aga Khan III, 48th Imam of the Nizari Isma'ili, and Princess Andrée Joséphine Carron. Dyer converted to Shia Islam, was styled as Princess and took the name Shirin, meaning sweetness.Prince Aga Khan gave up his place in the succession in order to marry Dyer, as she had previously been married. He gifted her with luxury cars, jewels and Jamaican Tiamo Island, which neighboured Pellew Island that she had received from her first husband. Dyer was accused of being a gold digger and responded that:
The couple had no children and divorced in 1962 after five years of marriage. She received $1.4m from the divorce settlement.