[custom_adv] Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary (22 June 1932 – 26 October 2001) of homeland as the second wife of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, whom she married in 1951. [custom_adv] Their marriage suffered many pressures, particularly when it became clear that she was infertile. She rejected the Shah’s suggestion that he might take a second wife in order to produce an heir, as he rejected her suggestion that he might abdicate in favour of his half-brother. [custom_adv] Being half German Christian, she was mistrusted by Shiite clerics; she was also resented by the Shah’s possessive mother. In March 1958, the Shah wept as he announced their divorce. [custom_adv] The British Ambassador claimed that Soraya was the Shah's only true love.After a brief career as an actress, and a liaison with Italian film director Franco Indovina, Soraya lived alone in Paris till her death. [custom_adv] Soraya was the elder child and only daughter of Khalil Esfandiary Bakhtiary (1901–1983), a Bakhtiari nobleman and persian ambassador to West Germany in the 1950s, and his German wife Eva Karl (1906–1994). [custom_adv] She was born in the English Missionary Hospital in Isfahan on 22 June 1932. She had one sibling, a younger brother, Bijan (1937–2001). Her family had long been involved in the persian government and diplomatic corps. [custom_adv] An uncle, Sardar Assad, was a leader in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of the early 20th century.Soraya was raised in Berlin and Isfahan, and educated in London and Switzerland. [custom_adv] In 1948, Soraya was introduced to the recently divorced Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, by Forough Zafar Bakhtiary, a close relative of Soraya's, via a photograph taken by Goodarz Bakhtiary, in London, per Forough Zafar's request. [custom_adv] At the time Soraya had completed high school at a Swiss finishing school and was studying the English language in London. They were soon engaged: the Shah gave her a 22.37 carat (4.474 g) diamond engagement ring. [custom_adv] Soraya married the Shah at Marble Palace, capital, on 12 February 1951. Originally the couple had planned to wed on 27 December 1950, but the ceremony was postponed due to the bride being ill.
