Runway Royal: Rita Hayworth
The Spanish-american actress was one of the world’s most famous stars by 1948 when she met Prince Aly Khan.
Born Margarita Carmen Cansino, she began working at just 12 years old, forming half of the Dancing Cansinos alongside her professional dancer father, before being spotted at 16 and given a screen test.
By WWII her career was soaring, with roles in hit films like Only Angels Have
Wings alongside Cary Grant and her breakthrough part opposite Fred Astaire in You’ll Never Get Rich.
Her sexy image made her one of the top pin-up girls of the era and her famous one-glove striptease in 1946’s Gilda brought her worldwide adoration. By now Rita was on her second marriage – to filmmaker Orson Welles – but despite having a daughter, Rebecca, in 1944, their relationship broke down and she was granted a divorce in 1947.
The next year, despite her divorce not being final, Rita visited Cannes, where she was introduced to the playboy prince, Aly, the Aga Khan’s son, who was descended from the Iranian Qajar dynasty.
The also still-married Aly romanced the Hollywood star with the press hot on their trail and, under pressure from his father, divorced his wife and married a pregnant Rita in May 1949.
Their South of France wedding was extravagant even by royal standards, with more than 500 guests, 600 bottles of Champagne and a perfume-scented swimming pool.
But despite her new status as a princess, Rita struggled with her new life away from Hollywood, and a husband who seemed incapable of fidelity. In 1951, she escaped back to the US with her daughter, Princess Yasmin, and despite a brief reconciliation, divorced Aly in 1953 on the grounds of extreme mental cruelty.
She returned to her film career and went on to marry twice more before dying in 1987 after a long battle with alcohol addiction and in her later years, Alzheimer’s.