The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People by Sylvia Wallace, Irving Wallace, Amy Wallace, David Wallechinsky Read Free Book Online Page A

them anything that was indiscreet.
    I’ve only kept on seeing De Massloff because I adore him.”
    —A.E.
    The Prince of Playboys
    PRINCE ALY KHAN (June 13, 1911–May 12, 1960)
    HIS FAME: Aly Khan was once heir apparent to Aga Khan III of India, but his international pursuit of fast cars, horses, and beautiful women cost him the post of imam—spiritual leader to over 20 million Muslims of the Ismaili sect—
    which had been held by his father.
    HIS PERSON: Born in Italy and
    reared in Europe, Prince Aly Suleiman
    Khan inherited a fortune and learned
    early how to enjoy it. In 1929, after the
    death of his mother, Aly threw himself
    into high-society London, where he
    had been sent to study law. The short
    and swarthy teenager stood out among
    the pale gentry, and his exotic looks,
    boundless energy, and skill at racing
    cars and horses won him fame and the
    adoration of that year’s debutantes. He
    went on to compete in European auto
    races and hunt on African safaris, all
    Aly Khan with Rita Hayworth
    the while managing his horse-breeding
    farms and villas in Ireland, France, Switzerland, and Venezuela. The Allies found his daring and his fluency in English, French, and Arabic invaluable during WWII, awarding him the Croix de Guerre and the U.S. Bronze Star for his work in intelligence. Though some consider his most outstanding conquest to be Rita Hayworth, whom he married in 1949, he earned great respect as Pakistan’s delegate to the U.N., where he served from 1958 until his death in a car accident two years later.
    LOVE LIFE: Two skills from race-car driving and army service stood him well in his career as a lover: speed and logistics. With houses all over the world, he had only to capture a woman’s attention and he could woo her wherever he wished. His blitzkrieg involved the “eyes-across-the-crowded-room” approach: staring intently at the chosen prey until he had her attention. Then he wangled an introduction, following it up with dozens of roses, constant phone calls, and attention to his victim’s every whim and desire. The international celebrity hostess Elsa Maxwell wrote that Aly made a woman “feel no other person exists for him. He talks to her with breathless excitement…. He dances with her slowly and rapturously, as though it is the last time he will ever hold her in his arms…. When he tells a woman he loves her, he sincerely means it at the moment. The trouble is that a moment passes so quickly.” Even a married woman could carry on an affair rather discreetly with the prince, who always traveled with a crowd of people and kept everyone guessing who, among the current crew, was the chosen one. A bewildered member of Parliament, Mr. Loel Guinness, told a divorce court in 1936 that he had left a happily married woman, his beautiful blond wife, Joan, with such a retinue, and returned from a business trip to find she wanted a divorce to marry Aly Khan. Joan was Aly’s first wife and she gave him two sons, Karim (who became the fourth imam when Aly’s father died in 1957) and Amyn.
    Though Aly continued to stalk other women, he didn’t bother to ask Joan for a divorce until he met Rita Hayworth in 1948. The sultry actress was
    vacationing on the Riviera. As competition Aly had Hollywood’s leading men as well as the shah of Iran, also vacationing there and planning seductions of his own. Aly won, gallantly helping Rita forget her inattentive husband, Orson Welles, by whisking her off to Paris, London, and Madrid. For Rita, seeking privacy and respite from a grueling Hollywood schedule, marriage to Aly was a bitter disappointment. He felt alone with anything less than a mob, she said. She took their daughter, Yasmin, back to America with her, becoming the first woman to walk out on Aly Khan. They divorced in 1953 and Aly renewed old interests, shuttling between countries on visits, so involved he often did not leave his hotel suite. His father once became incensed when a delegation of Ismailis,