In 1958, the Shah of Iran and Queen Soraya divorced, ending a marriage that had captivated the world. But their story did not end with the separation. Decades later, as the Shah lay dying of cancer, Soraya sent him a letter revealing a secret she had carried for over twenty years: she still loved him. His reply confessed the same.
He wanted to see her one last time, but he was still married to his third wife, Farah, who never left his bedside. He proposed a secret meeting in Cairo, a final goodbye his wife would never know about. He died before they could meet. The former queen spent the rest of her life in Paris, and her death in 2001 raised questions that remain unanswered.
Soraya was the only daughter of an Iranian nobleman and his German wife. She spent her adolescence between Berlin and Isfahan, surrounded by luxury. In 1948, the Queen Mother of Iran, Taj al-Moluk, was searching for a wife for her son, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. She came across a photograph of Soraya and immediately decided the sixteen-year-old was the perfect match.
To be sure, she sent one of her daughters to meet the girl. The princess agreed and rushed back with the news. Soon, Soraya was invited to the royal palace in Tehran. It seemed like a casual visit, but in reality, she was auditioning to become queen.
Soraya was swept off her feet the moment she saw the Shah in his military uniform. She later described him as magnificent. He was equally taken with her. The very next day, her father was told that the Shah and his family thought she was perfect.
Mohammad Reza was ready to propose immediately. When her father passed on the news, he asked her a single question: was she ready to marry him? She said yes. There were warning signs from the beginning.
The Shah was in his thirties, more than a decade older than Soraya. His family was notoriously dysfunctional. His father had been deliberately cold toward him to toughen him up, allegedly even using riding whips. The Queen Mother was smothering and deeply jealous.
And the Shah had been married before, to Princess Fawzia of Egypt, a marriage that ended badly. Fawzia was miserable in Iran, and Mohammad Reza was openly unfaithful. Still, Soraya had said yes, and backing out was no longer simple. The wedding was set for December 27, 1950, but Soraya fell violently ill with typhoid the night before.
The palace postponed the ceremony. Legend says the Shah came to her bedside every day to place a jewel on her pillow. A new date was set just six weeks later, February 12, 1951. It was far too soon.
On the morning of her wedding, Soraya was so weak she could barely stand and shivered in her gown. Her wedding dress, designed by Christian Dior, was a pearl-studded, feather-trimmed creation weighing sixty-six pounds. Minutes before the ceremony, the Shah noticed she was struggling and cut off the train so she could make it to the altar. Once married, the couple was desperately in love.
But Soraya was only eighteen when she became queen, and the Shah learned what it was like to be married to a teenager. When she was in a good mood, she was sweet and charming. When upset, she was volatile. After a fight at a public dinner, she smashed a priceless vase against the wall.
After another argument, she banned the Shah from her room for weeks, forcing him to sleep on a cot outside her door. When a courtier suggested she let him back in, she pointed to a corner and said he could put his bed there. Soraya’s beauty made her an icon, but she disdained royal customs, refused to wear formal clothes, and tried to avoid boring royal duties. Her European heritage already made her suspicious to the court, and her attitude earned her the nickname “the German woman” among Iran’s elite.
While visiting the United States, she went water skiing in Miami in a bikini. The photo was banned in Iran. Her in-laws, who had never warmed to her, saw every gesture of love from the Shah as a threat. Soraya had her own jealousy issues.
The Shah already had a daughter from his first marriage, Princess Shahnaz, who was only eight years younger than her stepmother. Soraya resented the attention the girl received and sent her off to boarding school almost immediately. Soraya’s main duty as queen was to produce an heir. Three years into the marriage, she had not become pregnant.
The Shah asked her to travel to America for a medical examination. There, the doctor told them the stress of the past years had made it difficult to conceive, but there was nothing wrong with her fertility. They sought a second opinion in Boston. The results were devastating.
This doctor confirmed their worst fears: Soraya was infertile and could never give birth to an heir. The couple returned to Iran in a terrible state. Soraya underwent countless tests and treatments, but nothing helped. Her in-laws offered no support.
The Queen Mother and the royal princesses spread gossip about her “barren womb. ” The Queen Mother had her courtiers spy on the young queen, monitoring her waistline and eating habits. She once approached Soraya and cruelly asked when she was going to give her son a boy. Soraya had one desperate hope.
Her stepdaughter Shahnaz had just married Ardashir Zahedi, the son of a former prime minister. If Shahnaz could give birth to a male grandson, maybe the nightmare would end. But the Shah despised his daughter’s new husband. He swore that Zahedi could not continue the dynasty and would never accept a grandson from the union as his heir.
The Shah had another idea. He proposed taking a second wife. It was not uncommon in the Iranian royal family, but Soraya rejected the plan. Instead, she begged him to change the constitution to allow one of his half-brothers to rule after him.
The Shah agreed but said he had to ask the council of wise men first. There was no such council. He simply did not want to be the one to say no. Around this time, the Queen Mother, who had once suggested Soraya as a wife, decided it was time for her son to divorce her.
Soraya also clashed with the Shah’s closest friend, courtier Ernest Perron. He lived in the palace, and some whispered the relationship was romantic. Soraya hated him, calling him cunning, perfidious, and Machiavellian. Perron was the one who revealed her husband’s betrayal.
He visited her one day and began giving her advice about her marriage, revealing that the Shah had told him what happened between them in the bedroom. Soraya was furious and demanded the Shah kick Perron out of the palace. It did nothing to save the marriage. On March 14, 1958, Iran officially announced that the royal couple was divorcing.
The Shah wept openly during the broadcast. Soraya was living in Europe and claimed she was blindsided. She said that nine days earlier, the Shah had called and begged her to let him take a second wife or he would have no choice but to divorce her. She refused again, believing they still had time to turn things around.
The parting gifts were lavish: a penthouse in Paris, a monthly allowance, a Rolls-Royce Phantom, and a ruby. Everyone knew the Shah was still in love with her. After the divorce, they reportedly met in private several times. A year later, he married Farah Diba, and in October 1960, almost exactly nine months after the wedding, Farah gave birth to a son, Crown Prince Reza.
Soraya had to move on. She landed a role in the film The Three Faces, using only her first name. During filming, she began an affair with Italian director Franco Indovina, who was already married. She called him the second love of her life.
In 1972, Indovina died in a fiery plane crash when Alitalia Flight 112 struck Mount Longa. The shock plunged Soraya into deep depression, and her film career stalled. She retreated to her Paris penthouse, planning to live quietly. In 1979, she learned the Shah was dying of cancer.
Despite twenty years apart, she wrote him a letter. She told him she still loved him and had never stopped. She wanted to see him one last time. His reply confessed the same, and he desperately wanted to say goodbye in person.
But he was still married to Farah, who was constantly at his side nursing him through his illness. He suggested a secret meeting in Cairo, hoping his wife would never find out. The plan was doomed. The Shah died before they could say goodbye.
Soraya spent the rest of her life in Paris, keeping a circle of European nobility and celebrities while staying largely out of the spotlight. On October 26, 2001, she was found dead in her Paris apartment. The reasons for her death were listed as undisclosed, and questions still linger. Her love story, which earned her the nickname “the sad-eyed princess,” continues to fascinate.
Even in photographs, the turmoil behind her eyes was impossible to miss.