DIANE KEATON
The actress breaks her silence about her brother’s mental illness, the toll it took on her family and how she’s made peace with her past.
Orson cast her in the title role of his avantgarde mystery The Lady From Shanghai, and together they had a daughter, Rebecca. But their fiery romance burned out quickly. “She thought he was going to settle down,” says McLean. “And it was exactly at that point that he was like, ‘I’m outta here!’ ” For her part, Rita had grown tired of Orson’s oversize ego. “I can’t take his genius anymore,” she bitterly explained.
A ROYAL ROMANCE
“Rita was very depressed when she and Orson broke up” in 1947, Edward Z. Epstein, the co-author of Rita: The Life of Rita
Hayworth, tells Closer. “And that’s when she met Prince Aly Khan.”
The son of a Middle Eastern sultan, Khan swept Rita off her feet. “He had racehorses and this beautiful chateau on the French Riviera,” says McLean. “He could make any woman feel like they were the center of the universe.”
They got married in 1949, and later that year their daughter, Yasmin Aga Khan, was born. Yet Khan wasn’t looking for domestic stability. “He had pursued her, but in the manner of many playboys, once he got her, he was on to the next thing,” says McLean.
Their marriage lasted only four years, but Rita found meaning in life as a mother. “She was so loving, so caring,” recalls Yasmin. “She taught me important things. At home, she would put on music and play the castanets. I had a wonderful childhood. I knew she was famous, but she was my mom — a regular mom.”
Rita left Hollywood when she wed Khan, and when she returned after their divorce, she had to start over. “Just because I was married to Aly, people think I’m rich!” she later said. “Well, I’m not. I never got a dime from Aly or any of my husbands!”
That included Dick Haymes, the Argentinian-born crooner she married in 1953. He owed a huge amount to the IRS when they met and was in danger of getting deported when Rita came to his rescue. “He took whatever money he could from Rita to pay off all his debts,” says Moss.
After two years together, Rita was fed up and divorced Haymes. “I stood by him as long as he was in trouble,” she said. “But I can’t take it anymore.” Her final marriage, to movie producer James Hill, lasted from 1958 to 1961. “He would come in the door, go straight to his room, and not talk to me
“When I look back on my marriages, I know the pain I went through, but that’s part of life and has its own value.”
— Rita
all night,” she said. “He said I was not a nice woman in too loud a voice.”
HER FINAL BATTLE
Rita had developed a problem with alcohol, but initially no one realized she was drinking to mask the effects of earlyonset Alzheimer’s disease. “There were times Mother would step out of an elevator and not know which way to go,” Yasmin says. “You could see the panic because she was so confused and disoriented.”
The problems worsened to the point where Rita could no longer work, and Yasmin moved into an apartment next door in NYC to nurse her ailing mom. “She was so sweet and loving,” says Yasmin. “It was a natural thing for me to help her.”
After fighting the disease for years, Rita died at 68 in 1987. Yasmin founded the Rita Hayworth Gala to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association and honor her mother. “Just having a loved one with the disease and seeing the decline and knowing so many people have it, that motivates me,” Yasmin says. “I’m hoping we find the answers in my lifetime. We need to find a cure.” No doubt Rita would be proud.