54. Her Husband Made One Last Phone Call
According to Soraya, it really went down like this: Nine days before the palace put out its announcement, Mohammad Reza had called her up and begged her to let him take a second wife, or he’d have no choice but to divorce her. Although Soraya refused again, she thought they still had time to turn things around. The Shah's response, however, wasn't any better.
Soraya (2003 TV Movie), Rai Fiction
55. Her Husband Broke Down
For all their drama—and let’s be real, there was a lot of it—not even Soraya’s most bitter enemy could say the Shah didn’t love her. The Shah's reaction to his divorce was pitiful. When Mohammad Reza spoke to the Iranian people during the announcement, he wept openly. A British Ambassador even admitted that Soraya was the Shah’s “only true love”.
With all this pain and suffering, it was supposed to be the end of the road for the royal couple. But Soraya’s tragic love story was far from over.
56. Her Ex Gave Her A Parting Present
Soraya was supposed to now fade into obscurity and live a "normal" life. From the beginning, that's not what happened. As Soraya stepped down from her royal title, the Shah gave her a parting gift of a luxe penthouse suite in her beloved Paris, a hefty monthly allowance, and other more “modest” presents like a Rolls-Royce Phantom and a juicy Bulgari ruby.
They were ostensibly farewell gifts, but they had some big ulterior motives.
57. She Couldn’t Move On
Soraya and Mohammad Reza just couldn’t quit each other. Before long, the situation got scandalous. Although everybody knew the Shah was still very much in love with his ex-wife, the aides at the palace wanted to believe the situation was cut and dry. Once more, it wasn't: They reportedly "met" in private several times after the divorce.
As we’ll see, their reunion didn’t even end there. But before that, Soraya had to live her worst nightmare.
Soraya (2003 TV Movie), Rai Fiction
58. The Shah Replaced Her
Mohammad Reza was now desperate for an heir, and his next actions proved it. In 1959, just a year after their acrimonious divorce, Soraya had to watch the Shah remarry the beautiful, young, and probably fertile Farah Diba in a lavish ceremony. Afterward, the entire world sat and watched to see if Farah would produce a royal son at long last. The answer was crushing.
59. Her Competition Upstaged Her
The new Queen Farah of Iran didn't struggle in the slightest to give the Shah children. In fact, in October of 1960—almost exactly nine months after the wedding—she gave birth. Then it got even crueler. Farah had a healthy boy, the Crown Prince Reza. That one had to hurt Soraya, but she did her best to move on. Her way of coping, however, was somewhat surprising.
60. She Became A Hollywood Starlet
After ending her tenure as the Queen of Iran in tragedy, Soraya had a strange second life—as a film star. Hollywood had always fascinated her, and with her legendary beauty, she snagged roles in classics like The Three Faces under only her first name, which is how you know she was legit. But with Hollywood fame came Hollywood drama…
The three faces (1965), Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica
61. She Started A Steamy Affair
While filming The Three Faces, Soraya followed in many an ingénue’s footsteps and started a steamy affair with one of her directors, the Italian dynamo Franco Indovina. Obviously, Soraya wanted to forget all about her first life as a queen and distract herself with a passionate rebound. It was as much as she deserved, but there was just one big problem.
The three faces (1965), Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica
62. She Had A Second Shot At Love
Soraya always jumped into a romance with both feet, and in the end Indovino became more than just a rebound; Soraya named him as the "second love of her life". Except she was getting ahead of herself. Indovina might have been her boyfriend, but he was also very married to another woman. Yes, this state of affairs ended in disaster—but not for the reasons you might think.
The three faces (1965), Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica
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63. She Experienced A Fatal Tragedy
In 1972, Soraya had been through enough pain to last a lifetime, but fate wasn’t through with her yet. That year, she got the most agonizing news of her life. This time, it wasn't divorce but a fatal accident. Her illicit lover Indovina had perished in a fiery plane crash after Alitalia Flight 112 ran into Mount Longa. The shock was simply too much for her.
64. She Quit Everything
Soraya must have thought she'd gotten a second chance at love, and here it was ripped right out of her hands. Indovina's passing left her bereft and severely depressed, and her film career stalled. She eventually retreated to her penthouse and Parisian high society, intending to live the rest of her life quietly. Once more, though, she was in for a surprise.
Soraya (2003 TV Movie), Rai Fiction
65. She Wanted A Fairy Tale Romance
Even while she was married to the Shah, Soraya complained bitterly that he was willing to throw her aside for the sake of his crown. She hopelessly wished he would behave like her friend King Edward VIII, who gave up his own throne in a gesture of commitment for his divorcée lover Wallis Simpson. Little did she know at the time, but Soraya almost got her wish.
66. She Wrote The Shah A Goodbye Letter
In 1979, Soraya was still reeling from her immense losses and dragging her past behind her. Then her life took another dark twist. She found out that Shah Mohammad Reza was now dying of cancer, and would be gone within months. Although they had been apart for more than 20 years, Soraya couldn't help writing him a letter. Its contents were heartbreaking.
67. She Requested A Secret Meeting
In her heartfelt writings to the Shah, Soraya exposed her deepest, longest-held secret: She still loved him, and she had never stopped loving him. But Soraya didn’t leave him with just words. She also swore that if he would have her, she wanted to see him one last time before he passed. All that she could do now was wait for the Shah's reply.
The three faces (1965), Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica
68. She Had A Romeo And Juliet Love Story
Soraya and her Shah truly were fairy-tale lovers, because Mohammad Reza's response back has any Cinderella story beat. Mohammad Reza confessed that he, too, had never stopped loving her and that he was desperate to say goodbye to her in person. But before he could even think about doing that, he had to get over one obstacle.
69. She Was A Star-Crossed Lover
Though the Shah truly wanted to see Soraya, there was something big in the way. Namely, he was still married to Farah Diba, who had given him four children over the years. But, er, this didn't stop him for any moral reason—rather, it was just that Farah was always at his side, nursing him through cancer, and he couldn't get away from her easily.
So, he made a scandalous suggestion.
70. She Was The Other Woman
To get around his wife and see his long-lost love, Mohammad Reza wanted to wait until he could meet Soraya, secretly and alone, in Cairo. If his attendants organized it well enough, Farah would be none the wiser, and he could still get to say goodbye one last time to his beloved former queen. Like so much in Soraya's life, however, this was doomed from the start.
Decadence and Downfall: The Shah of Iran
71. She Never Got To See Her Love Again
To Soraya's great heartache, this illicit meeting never went through. The reason why is even more tragic than you think. The only thing that stopped Mohammad Reza from seeing the plan through was death itself. He passed before the star-crossed lovers could manage to arrange their meeting. And if you think that’s dramatic, just wait.
72. Her Throne Was In Danger
Soraya’s brief, seven-year reign as Queen was tumultuous. Even as she dealt with infertility, the Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh started trying to take over her royal husband’s powers. When the Shah grew depressed and inactive over the strife, Soraya reacted in the exact opposite way. She reportedly went full Lady Macbeth…
73. Her Husband Disgusted Her
One day during this crisis, Soraya was so sick of her husband moping around his palace that she marched up and demanded he do nothing less than launch a coup against the government. He refused—and her reply was chilling. She said he disgusted her, later confessing, “I could no longer bear the weak man he had become”. I don’t know about that one, Raya.
Soraya (2003 TV Movie), Rai Fiction
74. She Was Full Of Self-Hatred
Throughout her reign, many Iranians accused Soraya of prejudice against their culture. Unfortunately, the truth was even worse than they imagined. Though Soraya always struggled with her nomadic upbringing and never felt at home anywhere, she also explicitly favored Western European culture over Iranian customs. She even criticized the Shah when he displayed what she thought of as "Oriental" behaviors.
Still, for all this, no one could say she deserved her heartbreaking end.
75. She Became A Recluse
By 1980, Soraya had loved and lost three times in her life—twice to the same man. After the Shah's passing, she was a thoroughly broken woman, and she spent the rest of her life in the chic neighborhood of Elysee in Paris, keeping up her social circle of duchesses and celebrities while staying under the radar. Yet when the former Queen of Iran's end came, it was anything but elegant.
76. She Met A Mysterious End
On October 26, 2001, Soraya was found, cold and lifeless, in her apartment in Paris. Chillingly, the reasons for her demise are "undisclosed," and questions linger to this day about her ultimate fate. No one has ever come forward about the cause of her end or the circumstances leading up to it, putting a huge question mark at the end of her life. Yet there’s something even eerier.
Wikimedia Commons, Mutter Erde
77. Her Family Had A Curse
Soraya's passing was disconcerting enough, but before the coroners could probably even solidify their reports, another tragedy struck. Soraya's younger brother Bijan also died, just after commenting on his sister's passing that "After her, I don't have anyone to talk to". This cluster of family deaths had led some to suspect foul play, which only deepens the mystery of her end.
78. She Earned A Tragic Nickname
Soraya's star-crossed story has attracted plenty of Rome and Juliet comparisons, and people remain fascinated and touched by her royal fall from grace. In fact, this tragic history earned her the nickname "The Sad-Eyed Princess," since even through the photographs of her at the time, everyone could see the turmoil going on behind her eyes.
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