The Public Was Left Reeling By Rita Hayworth's Prince Aly Divorce, But She Thrived Without Him

Rita Hayworth was a gorgeous yet tragic Old Hollywood star in multiple ways. Born Margarita Cansino to dancer parents, her father, Eduardo, forced her to drop out of school to dance professionally and abused her on the road. She later had a turbulent love life during her career as she had five short-lived marriages. Her relationship with third husband Prince Aly Khan started off as a passionate yet scandalous Old Hollywood affair and ended in a horrible divorce.

The prince was still married to his first wife in 1948 when he set his sights on Hayworth, who was separated from her second husband, Orson Welles. After confiding in a gossip columnist, Khan connected with the "Gilda" actor in Paris, wooed her in the Provence region of France, and lavished her with expensive jewels in California. Both parties divorced their spouses ahead of their Provence wedding in May 1949. However, Hayworth and the prince didn't have a joyful union after the birth of their daughter Yasmin that December.

Prince Khan was the eldest son of Aga Khan III, a hereditary spiritual leader of the Nizari Isma'ili community in Islam. After the wedding, the prince's father required the newlyweds to tour southern Africa as part of the prince's duties. This was hard for Hayworth, who left her acting career behind; the prince also reportedly had extramarital affairs on these trips. In 1951, she returned to Hollywood with Yasmin and her oldest daughter, Rebecca Welles, before divorcing the prince in 1953, much to the shock of the public who had been mesmerized by the seemingly fairy tale romance.

Rita Hayworth's marriage to Prince Aly Khan looked cinematic to the average person. Pathé News said, "The oldest Hollywood fairy story comes true," when recording their jam-packed civil ceremony. After all, the American actor left the hustle and bustle of Hollywood to become one of history's most beautiful princesses. The glitz and glamour eventually overwhelmed Hayworth, and Khan's womanizing ways drove her away. "The trouble with Aly is that he is grossly oversexed," a close source said. "If he would stop chasing women he probably would be all right. But the man must have three or four of them at a time" (via Vanity Fair).

The "Gilda" actor and Prince Khan's 1953 divorce disproved the fairy tale narrative, and the custody battle for their daughter Princess Yasmin lasted until the prince's untimely death in 1960. Khan pleaded to have Yasmin live with him in Europe because he heard there were threats against her life. Hayworth refused to cave in, and she also turned down a $1 million offer to raise their daughter as a Muslim.

None of this stopped Hayworth from breaking her filmmaking hiatus and having more box-office success. In 1952, Hayworth starred in "Affair in Trinidad." The drama's success came as a surprise because Columbia Pictures suspended Hayworth for violating her seven-year contract by marrying Khan and living abroad. Plus, the movie's script wasn't finished at the start of filming. Her next film, "Salome," debuted the same year as her divorce and was widely received in France, Khan's country of residence. Although Hayworth went on to have two more tumultuous marriages, her acting career lasted until the early '70s. Clearly, she didn't need a prince to thrive; when she died in 1987, it was with an estimated net worth of $10 million, per Celebrity Net Worth.