Portrait of the sad-eyed princess

Princess Soraya’s father Khalil lived for much of the 1920s in Germany, where he married Soraya’s Russian-born mother Eva Karl in 1926. Soraya was born in Ispahan in 1932, but lived in Germany until she was five, returning to Iran in 1937.

In 1947 she went to school in Switzerland, moving to London in 1950. Soon afterwards, in classic fai…

Enjoy unlimited access: just £1 for 12 weeks

Subscribe now