Begum Om Habibeh at Royal Ascot

Royal Ascot is Britain’s most valuable race meeting, attracting many of the world’s finest racehorses to compete for more than £7.3m in prize money. Each year the meeting is broadcast to audiences around the globe, yet to experience it in person is something altogether more special.

Her Highness The Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan III appears poignant in 1958 as she attends the first Royal Ascot since the death of her late husband in 1957. Their presence at Royal Ascot was legendary, as was their love of horses, and for eachother.

 

 

 

 

Wedding Aly Khan and Rita Hayworth

In 1948, the American actress was introduced to the Prince Ali Khan at a party thrown by columnist Elsa Maxwell and the lovers promptly engaged a relationship threatened by religious groups and Hollywood narrow-minded spirits denouncing their affair that had begun when both were not yet officially divorced but also scandalized by the non-Christianity of the playboy prince.

Whatever, the sexy actress turned into a princess and stayed away of screens, dedicating herself to domestic life and her two daughters.

Rita Hatworth and Prince Ali Khan on their wedding day in the French Riveria

Her Highness The Begum Aga Khan III attends the wedding of her stepson Prince Aly Khan to Rita Hayworth at Château de l’Horizon in the South of France on May 27, 1949.

However, fairy tales don’t always lead to happy endings and Rita Hayworth called for divorce in 1951 after her husband was remarked with Joan Fontaine. Rita Hayworth had left the spotlights of Hollywood for the soft sunlight of elegant holiday resorts but was constrained to return to obscurity, behind the oppressive shadow of Gilda.

Cannes Film Festival of 1967

Her Highness The Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan III welcomes actress Shirley MacLaine to her villa  Yakymour in Le Cannet, during the Cannes Film Festival of 1967.

Aga Khan III, Quote of The Day

Sultan Sir Mohammd Shah Aga Khan III and Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan

I have at last been granted the real and wonderful haven of finding in and with my wife a true union of mind and soul

Sir Sultan Mohammed Shah, Aga Khan III, in his Memoirs ‘World Enough & Time’, page 275

Quote of the day, Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan

We should take care of eachother, everybody should be loved! …we are here on earth to do good, and not to harm or judge people, so lets love!

Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan

An evening with…..

Her Highness The Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan III and Maurice Chevalier arrive at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées where Maria Callas sang that evening for the second time before the Parisian public for the benefit of the Order of Knights of Malta in June of 1963

Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan at Yakymour

Hélène Rochas and Begum Aga Khan at Le Bal du Centenaire

May 27, 1966: Hélène Rochas, hostess of Le Bal du Centenaire de Monaco, draws a curtsy to welcome Her Highness The Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan III. Her Highness arrives in a gown by costumier André Levasseur and a diamond tiara. The surrounding guests applaud at Her entrance

Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan III is making her entrée at Le Bal du Centenaire de Monaco (Privat collection)(Click photo to enlarge).

Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan III is welcomed by Hélène Rochas at Le Bal du Centenaire de Monaco (Privat collection)(Click photo to enlarge).

The Begum and the Cannes Film Festival, 1966

Today, 50 years ago, Sophia Loren and the President of the Cannes Film Festival Jury (right), visits Her Highness The Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan III and her father Adrian Labrousse (left) at the Begum‘s villa Yakymour, Le Cannet, on May 18, 1966.

Her Higness La Bégum used to assemble every year the members of the Cannes film festival jury, and many national and international movie stars.

Mata Salamat’s Deep Friendship

After being elected Miss Lyon in 1929, then Miss France in Paris in 1930, beauty queen and a representatieve of France, Yvette Labrousse traveled to many countries around the world. She found herself particulary taken by Egypt and, in the late thirdies she moved to Egypt. There Yvette Labrousse met her future husband, the Sultan Aga Khan III, 48th Imam of the Nizari Shia Ismaili community, and they fell in love at first sight and married on 9 October 1944 in Switzerland. Then she took the name of Om Habibeh (Little Mother of the Beloved) and became Begum, fully Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan.

They settled in the Avenue Victoria villa ‘Yakymour‘ at Le Cannet, in the hills above Cannes. Her Higness La Bégum, who was nterested in the arts including classical music, opera and ballet, used to assemble the members of the Cannes film festival jury, and many national and international artists and movie stars. Some of them became friends for live. Like Kees van Dongen, Jean Cocteau, Sophia Loren, Maurice Chevalier, Gina Lollobrigida and Marlene Dietrich

Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan and painter Kees van Dongen. She wasn’t only Kees van Dongen’s muse, but with her husband’s encouragement, she also developed an active interest in painting and sculpture. Kees van Dongen made several portraits of Begum Om Habibeh and her husband.

Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan had a big heart for everybody. Also for people outside the Shia Ismaili community. She was dearly loved by her people because of her generosity to the poor, childern, women and the elderly, and, by her own husband as well. No matter what kind of religion, man or women, or even sexual oriantation, she was véry openminded and loyal. Yakymour and Nour el-Salam her home in Egypt, were both an open house.

Her Highness The Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan and  Jean Cocteau take part in la Bataille des Fleurs at la Promenade de la Croisette in Cannes on May 3, 1954. Her Highness The Begum Om Habibeh had a special relation with Jean Cocteau and his partner Jean Marais. They visit eachother often, and had a special and deep frienship.

Her Highness The Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan and  Jean Cocteau take part in la Bataille des Fleurs at la Promenade de la Croisette in Cannes on May 3, 1954.

Marlene Dietrich, Jean Cocteau and Her Highness The Begum Aga Khan III attend the dress rehearsal of Gilbert Bécaud’s ‘L’Opéra d’Aran’ at le Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris on October 26, 1962 (Click photo to enlarge).