Trudeau’s mom, Khan family once in midst of mini-drama
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s longtime family friendship with the Aga Khan may have begun with his mother during a trip to New York that caused an uproar 40 years ago.
The Aga Khan’s half-sister, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, is a jet-setting philanthropist who, in 1977, featured prominently in the political mini-drama involving the Trudeaus, a New York City apartment, a Russian ballet dancer and an iconic photograph of a princess and a prime minister’s wife, strolling along Madison Avenue.
Justin Trudeau’s family getaway by private helicopter to the Aga Khan’s 141-hectare private island in the Bahamas over the Christmas holidays is now under investigation by Mary Dawson, the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner. The billionaire religious leader’s foundation has received hundreds of millions of dollars in Canadian foreign aid money and is a registered lobbyist with the government.
In his explanation for the holiday, the prime minister said the Aga Khan was a family friend whom he has known since he was a “toddler.” Justin Trudeau was five-yearsold when his mother, Margaret, a self-described free-spirit decades younger than her husband, then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, spent their sixth wedding anniversary partying with the Rolling Stones at a Toronto nightclub. She then boarded a plane for New York — where the Stones were headed next — and became the focus of intense gossip.
Trudeau later described her New York escape as her “ultimate freedom trip.” But her freedom had its limits. Photographers caught Margaret on Madison Avenue, in a fur coat, smiling broadly and strolling arm-in-arm with an equally glamorous-looking Princess Yasmin Aga Khan. The princess was the daughter of actress Rita Hayworth and Prince Aly Khan, a royal who died in a motor crash in France in 1960.
Robin Leach, the celebrity columnist, revealed Trudeau’s New York hideaway as Princess Yasmin’s seven-room apartment in a March 28, 1977 article for People magazine. Trudeau spoke at length, providing several sensational quotes, including a description of her 58-year-old husband as having “the body of a 25-year-old,” and her preference for wearing garter-belts and stockings.
Her time with the princess featured a trip to the ballet to watch Mikhail Baryshnikov, and a trip to the toy store, presumably to buy gifts for Justin and his two younger brothers, Sacha and Michel. Trudeau told Leach that she wanted to move to New York, part-time, to begin an apprenticeship with the famous photographer Richard Avedon. She was 28 and weary of being viewed as a prime minister’s wife.
“I pray that people will not judge Pierre by my wanting to be a woman,” she told Leach. “I am a free spirit that must survive in a free world. I am not a weirdo, a wacko or an eccentric for wanting to do good, honest work on a day-to-day basis.
Trudeau eventually flew home to Ottawa. The couple divorced in 1984. Margaret Trudeau was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is now a well-known author and mental health advocate living in Ottawa.
Attempts to reach her for comment were unsuccessful Monday.