Yasmin Aga Khan

Yasmin Aga Khan is a Swiss-born American philanthropist known for raising public awareness of Alzheimer's disease. She is the younger daughter of American movie actress and dancer Rita Hayworth, and the third child of Aly Khan. Her paternal half-brother was Karim al-Husayni, Aga Khan IV.

Early life

Khan was born at Clinique de Montchoisi in Lausanne, Switzerland; she spent her early life with her mother and her maternal half-sister, Rebecca Welles Manning, daughter of Hayworth's marriage to Orson Welles. Her half-brothers are Karim Aga Khan IV and Amyn Aga Khan. In January 1953, her parents' divorce was granted on the grounds of extreme mental cruelty. Khan, then only three years old, played about the court while the case was being heard, finally climbing on to the judge's lap.
She attended Buxton School, a small boarding school in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and the International School of Geneva. In 1973, she graduated from Bennington College in the United States and was interested in opera singing.

Philanthropic activities

Influenced by the death of her mother, for whom she cared for many years, from Alzheimer's disease, Khan serves on the board of directors, as vice chairman, of Alzheimer's and Related Disorders Association. She is also the president of Alzheimer's Disease International, a National Council Member of the Salk Institute, and a spokesperson for the Boston University School of Medicine, Board of Visitors. She also serves on numerous boards of the Aga Khan Foundation. The 2009 documentary I Remember Better When I Paint features a stirring interview with Khan describing how her mother took up painting while struggling with Alzheimer's and produced beautiful works of art.

Personal life

She married her first husband, Greek economist and shipping heir Basil Embiricos, in 1985. The couple had a son. Yasmin and Embiricos were divorced in 1987. Her 25 year old son committed suicide. She married her second husband, Christopher Michael Jeffries, in 1989. They divorced in 1993.