Supermodel Gets Her Prince - Prince Rahim Aga Khan (Rita Hayworth's Grandson)

[Tropicana]

This will be of interest to those who follow the fashion industry, Hollywood glamour and, of course, royal watchers. Those who don't give a rat's batty can ignore.

Here's a story to warm your fashion-loving heart--supermodel Kendra Spears, who's graced runways for the likes of Louis Vuitton, Diane Von Furstenberg, Lanvin, and Calvin Klein, became a real-life princess this weekend when she married Prince Rahim Aga Khan--yes, the oldest son of that Aga Khan, the Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslim world.

According to the couple's engagement announcement this past April, the Prince has a BA from Brown University and an executive management degree from Navarra Business School in Barcelona. He works in "the poverty reduction efforts, notable micro-credit activities, of the Aga Khan Development Network--one of the largest private systems of agencies fostering social, cultural and economic development in Asia, Africa and the Middle East."

Kendra Spears has a BA in sociology from the University of Washington and was, as recently as 2009, the face of Prada.

The couple were married on Saturday at the Chateau de Bellerive in Geneva, Switzerland, where the private Muslim ceremony was witnessed by close friends and family.

Spears wore a stunning sari from Manav Gangwani's "Timeless" collection--an understated-yet-opulent gold-embroidered creation. She even gave a shout-out to fellow supermodel Naomi Campbell for introducing her to Gangwani.

http://shine.yahoo.com/fashion/super...131600216.html

Model turned princess Kendra Spears married Prince Rahim Aga Khan on Saturday in Geneva, Switzerland. He's not the first member of his family to marry a commoner - or, for that matter, a model. Khan's father, Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, wed British fashion model Sarah Croker-Poole in 1969, and his grandfather, Prince Aly Khan, married Hollywood legend Rita Hayworth in 1949.

The idea of becoming a princess might sound dreamy, but marrying royalty doesn't guarantee a fairy-tale romance. While some matches endure, others spark national derision or even lead to abdication, as was the case when American divorcee Wallis Simpson and Britain's King Edward VIII wanted to marry in the late 1930s.

Despite the riches and glamour, many unions between commoners and royals simply end in plain old divorce. However, the pomp and excitement of a royal wedding can also inspire and unite a whole country, if only for one magical day. - Sarah B. Weir, Shine senior writer

http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/photos/commoners-became-princesses-rules-engagement-slideshow/

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This is not Rita Hayworth's grandson. He died a tragic death at age 25.

Rita Hayworth’s grandson had been battling a long and difficult drug addiction and had previously attempted suicide before he died after an apparent suicide in his Manhattan apartment on Sunday.

According to a friend, Andrew Ali Aga Khan Embiricos - who was the grandson of the silver-screen legend - had been in and out of drug rehab over the past few years though seemed in good spirits in the days leading up to his death.


He was found lying on his bed in his Chelsea apartment after apparently suffocating himself with a plastic bag. An investigation is under way.


The New York Post reports that Mr Embiricos’ friend Aaron Edwards found Andrew's body around 9pm when he went to check on him Sunday because Andrew had missed several appointments.

Their report says that no note was found in Andrew's apartment at 270 West 17th Street, and his mother, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan rushed to the scene when she heard the news.

The 25-year-old Mr Embiricos was the son of Rita Hayworth’s daughter Princess Yasmin, 61, who was a product of Ms Hayworth’s third husband, Prince Aly Aga Khan.

A graduate of Fordham University with a degree in psychology, Mr Embiricos founded a Facebook charity group that provided clothing to homeless people and was also said to have worked with HIV/AIDS advocacy groups and the Alzheimer’s Association.
Village Voice reporter Michael Musto, who knew the 25-year-old from the New York social scene, wrote of his death: 'I’m deeply saddened by the loss of someone with such radioactive charisma. He was a strikingly handsome, personable guy who radiated charm no matter what crisis he was weathering.'


He also said that the young man had been in and out of drug rehab and had attempted suicide before, though revealed he had sounded cheerful in recent Facebook comments and was planning a trip to London with a friend.


In 2007, The Daily News' Gatecrasher column revealed he led a double life as an amateur porn enthusiast who had posted porn videos on XTube under an alias.

Mr Embiricos is both spiritual and Hollywood royalty, as his grandfather is Prince Aly Khan who was the leader of a sect of Islam.


Though there was no specific land that Prince Aly resided over, he was considered the head of the Ismaili Muslims which are a branch of Shia Islam.


Prince Aly's father was Aga Khan III, and in a very unusual move, he skipped a generation in the line of succession and passed his leadership role onto Prince Aly's son, Prince Karim, (Andrew's uncle).

While Aga Khan III officially said that the reason for the move was in order for the Ismaili people to have a younger ruler, many speculate that it was Prince Aly's playboy lifestyle that put his father over the edge.

The marriage between the Hollywood star and the Muslim prince was the second for Prince Aly and the third for Hayworth, who had just recently divorced the director Orson Welles when she met the Prince.

Prince Aly made headlines when he married screen siren Hayworth in a lavish ceremony in Cannes, France in 1949, when the movie star was already two months pregnant with Andrew Embiricos' mother Yasmin.

I didn't know that.

Yasmin was Rita Hayworth's second child- and her only child from her marriage to the Pakistani prince, and she was an item of debate during the couple's acrimonious divorce.


When Hayworth found out that the Prince was spotted dancing with fellow actress Joan Fontaine, Hayworth threatened to divorce him and moved to Reno, Nevada in order to expedite the process.

The couple fought over how and where Yasmin would be raised, with the Prince insisting that she be raised Muslim and Hayworth fighting for a Catholic upbringing similar to her own.
At one point, Hayworth rejected a $1m offer to raise Yasmin in accordance with her ex-husband's Muslim faith. She issued a statement expressing her clear preference for an American upbringings, saying 'Nothing will make me give up Yasmin;s chance to live here in America among our precious freedoms and habits'.

Yasmin ended up being raised by her mother in America, and the Prince died in a car accident when she was only 10 years old.



Yasmin married an economist and Greek shipping heir named Basil Embiricos in 1985, and the couple had Andrew. Much of her time was dedicated to her mother who suffered from Alzheimer's disease for many years before her 1987 death.

Yasmin was the president of Alzheimer's Disease International and her son took an interest in the charity later in his life.


There has been an official statement from the Khan side of the family, with Andrew's uncle Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, the current leader of the Ismaili Muslims, though it is not clear how close the relatives were.

'We do not know what happened yet, and we would appreciate everyone’s privacy for the family,' said Kris Janowski, Prince Karim's spokesman.

Andrew graduated from Fordham University in New York and worked as a sales executive at Virgin Atlantic.


When he wasn't working for the jet-setting crew in his role at Virgin Atlantic or previous job in travel sales at Fairmont Raffles-Swissotel, Andrew was in New York's jet set.

He appeared at a number of social events both in Manhattan and in the swanky Hamptons area of Long Island.

He was a constant presence at functions dedicated to raising money and awareness for Alzheimer's disease in honor of Hayworth.

Unsurprisingly, much of his charitable work was dedicated to Alzheimer’s disease, which was the cause of Ms Hayworth’s death in 1987.

The family is organizing Andrew's funeral through the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on the Upper East Side.

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