Leila Pahlavi

Leila Pahlavi was a princess of Iran and the youngest daughter of Mohammad Reza Shah and his third wife, Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi.

Early life

Leila Pahlavi was born on 27 March 1970 in Tehran, Iran. She was the fourth and youngest child of Reza and Farah Pahlavi. She had two elder brothers, an elder sister and an elder half-sister.

In exile

Princess Leila was nine years old when her family was forced into exile as a result of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Following her father's death in Egypt from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1980, the family settled in the United States. She attended the United Nations International School in New York City and graduated from Rye Country Day School in 1988. She spoke Persian, English, and French fluently, as well as some Spanish and Italian. She spent much of her time commuting between her home in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Paris, where her mother lived.
Leila Pahlavi studied literature and philosophy at Brown University and was said to have graduated in 1992. However, some sources say she dropped out of university before graduation due to declining health. She was a onetime model for the designer Valentino, and suffered from anorexia nervosa, chronic low self-esteem, severe depression and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Death

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. She was found to have more than five times the lethal dose of Seconal, a barbiturate used to treat insomnia, in her system, along with a nonlethal amount of cocaine, apparently committing suicide. She was found in bed, her body emaciated by years of anorexia, bulimia, and food intolerances. 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.
On 17 June 2001, she was buried near her maternal grandmother, Farideh Diba, in the Cimetière de Passy, Paris, France. At the funeral attendance was her mother, the former royal 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.
On 4 January 2011, her brother Ali Reza Pahlavi was found dead at his home in Boston, Massachusetts, from an apparent suicide.