A look at Iran's last monarchy, the Pahlavi dynasty, and why the glamorous royals were sent into exile

For nearly 50 years, Iran's former royal family has lived in exile after it was overthrown during the revolution that heralded in the dictatorship of the religious rulers known as the ayatollahs.

Now, Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi is vowing to return, hoping to assume power as the head of a democratic monarchy following the US-Israel strikes that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Before the Islamic takeover, the crown prince's father – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi – ruled Iran as the shah. He was the head of the Pahlavi dynasty and married to Queen Farah Pahlavi, an empress whose beauty and glamour rivalled that of US first lady Jackie Kennedy.

The shah and the empress ruled from the Peacock Throne in a reign dominated by wealth and glamour and they worked to modernise Iran, investing in education and giving women more freedom and rights than ever before.

The Iran under the Pahlavi dynasty was unrecognisable to how the country is today and the shah and empress regularly rubbed shoulders with world leaders and foreign royalty.

But the final years of the shah's rule was dominated by the brutality of Iran's security services and extravagant opulence that led to unrest amongst the masses, fuelled by the growing threat from religious leaders who eventually overthrew the monarchy and seized power.

Today, the descendants of Iran's last shah – including his 87-year-old widow – are hoping the latest military action in the Middle East will lead to a lasting regime change.

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The late shah's son, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who lives in the United States, welcomed the recent military intervention, calling it "the game changer we've been waiting for all this time".

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, the crown prince said the strikes and the death of the Ayatollah marked the "beginning of the very end of the regime".

He called on Iranians to "claim their country back from this hated regime".

The crown prince, who has long positioned himself as Iran's future leader, said he would return to head the transition of power, which would be facilitated by a coalition of forces including those inside Iran and its military.

Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi said he would travel to Iran as soon as possible.

"I would like to be there, whether it is before the regime collapses or right after the regime collapses," he said.

The Pahlavi dynasty

The Pahlavi dynasty ruled Iran from 1925 to 1979 and began with Shah Reza Pahlavi, a former army private and peasant's son who came to the throne after the British helped him stage a coup from the Qajar dynasty in 1921.

In 1941, Shah Reza Pahlavi was forced to abdicate by Allied forces during World War II and his son, Mohammad Reza, ascended the throne.

Shah Mohammad Reza went about modernising Iran, helping to transform it into a global power and improving the daily lives of its citizens, particularly women.

Women were given the right to vote, equal rights to men when it came to marriage and children's custody, university enrolments soared and women played a role in government decisions affecting them.

Shah Mohammad Reza was married twice before he met Farah Diba, who became his third wife and cemented the family's legacy in Iran and propelled the royal family onto the world stage.

The glamorous, convention-breaking queen

Farah was studying architecture in Paris in 1959 when she was introduced to the shah, recently divorced from his second wife, at an embassy reception. They married a short time later.

The queen wore a bridal gown by Dior that weighed 15kg due to the number of pearls and rhinestones that adorned it.

Her diamond tiara was made by American jeweller Harry Winston and featured the 60-carat Noor-ul-Ain pink diamond at its centre, surrounded by 324 other pink, yellow and white diamonds.

Harry Winston created another a magnificent tiara for the empress, which featured seven large cabochon emeralds, along with pink, yellow and white diamonds, also taken from Iran's Treasury.

The empress regularly wore the emerald tiara along with its matching emerald necklace.

Farah became a global fashion icon and a travelled extensively in Iran, promoting the rights of women and children and the disadvantaged and supported culture and the arts, science and medicine architecture and the environment.

She was a popular figure worldwide and represented her country abroad in her work as empress, becoming a symbol of modern Iran.

The shah and his wife embarked on foreign visits and welcomed royalty to Iran, including Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip who toured the country for 10 days in 1961.

The empress once received advice from Queen Elizabeth on how to cope with her heavy tiaras.

"After an official dinner we accompanied the Queen and Prince Philip to their apartments," Farah told The Times in 2018.

"She took off her tiara, saying, 'Phew! That's better.' I saw that inside the tiara there was velvet and cotton to lighten the pressure. The Queen helped me manage with the crown much more easily."

In 1962, the shah and Farah toured the US where the empress outshone the first lady, Jackie Kennedy.

She impressed with her "jewel-encrusted gown spun of gold thread, a diamond and emerald necklace, and a diamond-encrusted tiara that resembled a bird's nest holding seven giant emeralds the size of robins' eggs", historian Andrew Scott Cooper wrote in his book The Fall of Heaven, The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran.

An opulent coronation

When the shah crowned himself shahanshah – king of kings – in 1967, it would mark the beginning of the end of his reign.

The shah's coronation was held 26 years after he ascended the throne because he wanted to wait until the country had improved economically in order to justify such a grand and opulent display of power.

But the lavish nature of the coronation contributed to growing discontent among some sectors of society, angry at the monarchy's excesses.

Significantly for the shah's wife, Farah was crowned empress – the first empress in 2500 years.

In a move that was highly unusual in a Muslim monarchy, Farah became regent as well, meaning she would rule if her husband died before their son, the crown prince, turned 21. The crown prince was just seven at the time of his father's coronation.

The glittering celebration was attended by 5000 people and held in the Hall of Mirrors in the Golestan Palace in Tehran.

The empress wore a white satin Dior gown and a newly-made crown by French jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels.

The gems had to be taken from Iran's National Treasure, held in the royal vault at the Iranian Central Bank, and were not allowed to leave the country, so Pierre Arpels made 24 trips to Tehran and crafted the crown from inside a temporary workshop within the bank.

The empress' coronation crown featured 36 emeralds, 36 spinels and rubies, 105 pearls and 1,469 diamonds. A matching pair of earrings and a necklace was also created for the occasion along with other jewels for the shah's female relatives.

"I always said that when the king placed the crown on my head, he was crowning all the women of Iran," Farah told The Times.

Iran's Crown Jewels remain in Tehran, where they are on display in a secure vault within the Central Bank.

The overthrow of the monarchy

One of the main causes of the revolution in 1979 was the excesses of the monarchy.

In 1971, the shah held a lavish celebration in Persepolis celebrating the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian empire by Cyrus the Great.

The event was called the biggest party in history and cost more than $100 million, according to The New York Times.

World leaders and celebrities attended including Imelda Marcos of the Philippines and Monaco's Prince Rainier and Princess Grace. Prince Philip and his daughter Princess Anne represented Britain after the Queen was advised to avoid the celebrations due to security reasons.

In 1979, the Pahlavi dynasty's reign in Iran ended when Khomeini was put into power, turning Iran into a theocracy and an Islamic dictatorship.

The shah and his wife were shunned by their western allies although the shah, who was suffering from advanced non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, was briefly allowed to be treated in a US hospital before they were told to leave.

Their son, the crown prince, was 18 at the time and had just finished high school. He was undergoing military training as a fighter pilot in the US and was due to return home when the revolution happened. He has remained in exile in the US ever since.

The British government refused to grant the Pahlavis asylum but Farah later said her husband was sent supportive letters by Elizabeth II during their exile.

The shah and the empress eventually found safe haven in Egypt but a year later, the shah died of cancer. He is buried in Cairo.

The empress was left a widow at 41 and she has never remarried.

The Pahlavis experienced further tragedy when two of their four children died, which Farah said was due to their despair at how their lives were upended by the revolution.

Leila died of a drug overdose in a London hotel in 2001, aged 31, and in 2011 their 44-year-old son, Ali-Reza committed suicide while at Harvard.

Push for a royal return

In 2025, in an interview with The Times, Farah spoke of her hopes that the ayatollahs would one day fall.

"It's unbelievable really that a country like Iran with such a great civilisation and history should be ruled by these people," she said.

Farah has lived in Paris for many years and has an apartment overlooking the Seine. She also spends a large portion of her time in the US after she was allowed to return in the 1980s.

In 2027, a film about her life is due to come out.

Many Iranians still contact her, expressing their affection, she said.

"They send me emails with their telephone numbers. And I call them, and it's very strange because they recognise my voice," she told The Times.

"And they say: 'Hello shahbanu [queen consort]'. And I say: 'Don't say that' because I'm afraid the [Iranian] government is listening to them.

"But after all the lies that [Iran's religious rulers] have said about us … I am very happy to see and hear the sympathy and kindness of my compatriots before I die."

Since the US-Israel strikes, and the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, there have been many in Iran, and around the world, calling for the restoration of the monarchy.

During the recent protests that were crushed by the regime, demonstrators were heard chanting slogans in support of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who is now 66, including "Javid shah!" ("Long live the shah!")

The crown prince has been living in Washington, D.C., where he has been working to bring change, amassing supporters and advocating for foreign intervention in Iran.

He wants a secular democracy installed in Iran.

"First and foremost, my legitimacy only comes from my fellow Iranians," the crown prince told the ABC last week.

"I'm not looking for endorsement or international support. They should be supporting the Iranian people and their rights to self-determination and freedom. That's all I'm asking for."

His daughter is Princess Noor Pahlavi, 33, who was born in the US.

In late February, the princess spoke to the California Post about the mass protests that had swept Iran.

"It's literally a government waging war on its own citizens," she said.

"It's just incredibly painful to watch, to hear about. And it's hard for people here to see and hear about. But it's our responsibility not to look away."

"My father has given his entire adult life for the possibility to help his country find its footing and then step aside once the Iranians have chosen their own path through free elections or participate in any way that they so choose."

The late Shah's has two other daughters who live quiet lives. Princess Farahnaz Pahlavi, 62, is based in New York while Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi, 85, lives in Switzerland.

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