Farah Diba was born on the 14th October 1938, in Tehran, Iran, and as Farah Pahlavi is best known for being the former Empress of Iran, the spouse of the late Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was the Shah of Iran between 1941 and 1979, when he was exiled after being overthrown by the Iranian Revolution.
Have you ever wondered how much wealth this exiled queen has accumulated so far? How rich Farah Pahlavi is? According to sources, it is estimated that the total of Farah Pahlavi’s net worth, as of mid-2017, exceeds the sum of $100 million, primarily acquired during her tenure as Empress from 1961 to 1979, and inheritance from her husband who died in 1980.
Farah Pahlavi Net Worth $100 million
Farah was born into an upper-class family, as the only child of Farideh Ghotbi and Sohrab Diba, who was on officer of the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces, and apart from Iranian is of Azerbaijani and Gilak ancestry. Although she grew up in prosperity, after her father’s death in 1948 she and her mother were forced to abandon their luxurious lifestyle and move in with her uncle. Farah attended Tehran’s Italian School, after which she transferred to the French Jeanne d’ Arc School. At the age of 16, she enrolled at the Lycée Razi where she excelled at sports, basketball in particular. Later she studied architecture in Paris at the École Spéciale d’Architecture. In that era, all Iranian students abroad were funded by State sponsorship, and due to that, whenever the Shah officially traveled to foreign countries, he would be presented with several Iranian students. During one of his visits to France, in the Iranian Embassy in Paris, Shah Mohammad met Farah Diba, an encounter changed the course of Farah’s life and, later, certainly her net worth.
Upon her return to Iran in 1959, they began a “carefully choreographed courtship”, and later that year they officially announced their engagement. Just a month later, In December 1959, 21-year-old Farah Diba became the Queen of Iran, when she married nine years older Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Despite being his third marriage, this one becane the most “successful”, as in 1960 Farah bore a son and so heir, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi of Iran. In the course of the next decade, the couple had another son and two daughters. Doubtlessly, these only helped in boosting Farah Pahlavi’s popularity among the Iranian citizens, as well as her wealth.
As the Empress, Farah Pahlavi will stay remembered for her interest in and efforts to improve health, education and cultural spheres of Iran as well as social matters. She also founded Pahlavi University, the first American style educational institution in Iran, and focused on educating Iranian women. Apart from these, she was also very active in various charity causes. During her tenure, she initiated numerous institutions and organizations in order to preserve Iranian art and culture, as well as to promote it outside of the country. Farah also patronized Shiraz Arts Festival, and construction of several museum around the country. All these achievements certainly heavily impacted on the eventual total of Farah Pahlavi’s net worth.
In 1978, the Iranian Revolution culminated, caused by people’s dissatisfaction with Imperial Government, and escalated to mass demonstrations against the Pahlavi Dynasty in early 1979 which resulted in overthrowing Mohammad Riza. In January 1979, Farah and her husband left Iran and found asylum in Egypt, under the presidency of Anwar El Sadat. After Mohammad’s death in 1980, Farah stayed in Egypt for two more years, before moving to the US. It is certain that all these events dramatically reduced Farah Pahlavi’s wealth.
In 2001, Farah settled near Washington D.C., and ever since she lived between there and Paris, France. In 2003, she published her memoirs “An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah”, which was a real commercial success in Europe, helping Farah to increase her revenue by a large margin.
