LEILA PAHLAVI was nine when the call came to flee Iran. It was 1979 and the Islamic revolution of the ayatollahs was lapping at the feet of her father, the Shah.
Leaving her parents behind, the young princess, together with her brother Ali and sister Farahnaz, climbed aboard an Iranian Air Force jet bound for the US Air Force Base at Lubbock, Texas. The Shah and their mother, the Empress Farah, left the country the following day. It was the end of almost 2,700 years of monarchical rule in Iran, and for Leila the beginning of a life in exile.
That life ended at the age of 31 on Sunday in a suite in the Leonard Hotel near Marble Arch in London's West End. The circumstances are still unclear but it is believed that she may have taken an overdose of sleeping pills or anti-depressants. Leila, the youngest of the Shah's five children, struggled for years against an eating disorder that gradually came to dominate her life.
A close friend told The Telegraph that the princess was being treated by a specialist in Harley Street. The friend, who is also Iranian, said: "She suffered from many things. There were food intolerances and allergies and the eating disorder. Sometimes she would drink just water. But I never thought it would be that serious to kill her one day."
Leila spent her time travelling between New York, Paris - the home of her mother and grandmother - and the Leonard Hotel, her home for about half the year. When in London she could be seen in the nightclub Tramp. Money did not appear to be a problem, despite the freezing of the Shah's assets and the losses incurred by a dishonest relative.
Although educated at Brown, one of America's best universities, Leila had no plans for a career. Purpose seemed to elude her. The Leonard, a small hotel favoured by rich people in search of privacy, is owned by Iranians, and Leila kept a one-bedroom suite there at a cost of £450 a night.
The friend said: "They [the children of the Shah] didn't grow up to have a career. But Leila kept educating herself in her own culture, which is a very rich culture. Her love was poetry. We shared that love of poetry together. I would read to her and she would read back to me. She was a very cultured girl."
She did not have a stable relationship and became increasingly difficult to handle and neurotic under the strain of the disease. Friends said she had never accepted her exile from Iran, and had suffered from the loss of her father, who died in 1980 when she was aged 10.
The friend said: "She hoped to marry and she had a love affair. Sometimes she was low - as everybody can be - but she always had a hopeful tomorrow. She was cheerful and wanted to find her niche and get on with her life. She could be so funny."
The Westminster Coroner has opened an inquest into the death and a toxicology report is pending following an inconclusive post mortem. It is believed that the princess will be buried in Paris. Condolences from Iranian exiles around the world were flowing into the office of Empress Farah yesterday. The friend said: "She had great devotion to Iran. She was thinking a lot and she was trying to come to terms with herself."
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Dusty welcome stirs memories for the Queen(Electronic Telegraph)
By Caroline Davies
WHEN the Queen last visited South Africa she was engulfed in smoke from an over-enthusiastic 21-gun salute at her official welcome presided over by President Thabo Mbeki.
Yesterday, he paid his first state visit to Britain as president, and the Queen returned the compliment. This time he was engulfed in dust. Thick, whirling clouds of it.
It was churned up by the hooves of 200 horses as first the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery, pulling field guns, and then the Sovereign's Escort of the Household Cavalry performed a ceremonial ride-past on gravel at the president's official welcome in the quadrangle at Windsor Castle.
As the Queen, President Mbeki, his wife Zanele and Prince Philip looked on, they were almost choked. Initially they managed straight faces, but the shared memory of South African cordite during the Queen's 1999 visit to Pretoria appeared too much. First Mrs Mbeki giggled, then the Prince and finally both the president and the Queen gave way to mirth, as the Queen wiped the dust from her eyes.
President Mbeki, who flew into RAF Northolt, was treated to the full undiluted pomp and ceremony that accompanies such state visits, including a guard of honour from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, and royal procession by carriage to the castle.
Following an informal lunch, which the Princess Royal, Duke of York and Earl and Countess of Wessex also attended, he was whisked off for tea with Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother at Royal Lodge, Windsor Great Park.
Later he and 162 guests, including the Prime Minister Tony Blair, his wife Cherie, William Hague and his wife Ffion, and the new Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and his wife Alice Perkins, feasted on guinea fowl and raspberry souffle at a state banquet hosted by the Queen in St George's Hall.
Clearly, following the Cabinet reshuffle, some last minute adjustments were made to the guest list, which also included Janet Suzman, the South African political activist, Lord Attenborough, whose film Cry Freedom highlighted apartheid, and the Radio 4 Today programme presenter Sue MacGregor, who was born in South Africa.
President Mbeki clearly means business during the three-and-a-half day visit. He arrived accompanied by eight cabinet ministers and will be followed by up to 120 businessmen.
As is traditional during such visits, he met political leaders yesterday, beginning with Mr Hague, and followed by Charles Kennedy, leader of the Liberal Democrats, who both called at the castle. He will have private talks with Mr Blair at No 10 Downing Street tomorrow.
During his stay he will address the Scottish Parliament before being received by the Prince of Wales at Holyroodhouse for lunch with Scottish business leaders. Another banquet in his honour is being held at Guildhall in the City of London.
He will breakfast with business leaders before delivering a keynote address at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre tomorrow. Britain is South Africa's biggest trading partner, and President Mbeki will be doing all he can to attract further investment.
His final address will be tomorrow afternoon, when he delivers a speech to Members of the Houses of Parliament and invited guests at Portcullis House, central London.
The Queen spoke of her special bond with South Africa during her speech at last night's banquet. She said: "My strong personal affection for South Africa dates from the royal visit in 1947 when I accompanied my father for the first time on an overseas tour."
She praised the progress South Africa had made following the democratic elections in 1994. And she highlighted the trade, cultural and sporting links between Britain and South Africa, which continue to grow "as do the numbers of British tourists who flock to South Africa each year to enjoy the beaches, the scenery, the wildlife, and, of course, the new generation of fine South African wines".