This Saturday the private funeral is celebrated by Karim aga khan In Lisbon, the town where the head of the Ismaelite branch of Islam, who died at the 88 years, was based on its foundation and a large number of faithful. However, His mortal remains will be transferred to the town of Asuán, in Egypt, A country in which there are many followers of those Muslim beliefs different from the traditional ones.
Of his first marriage to the beautiful British model, Sally Croker Poole His first three children were born, and The greatest of them has already been appointed his spiritual heir and administrator of his great fortune, Calculated according to some sources at 8,000 million dollars, although others place it in much higher figures. After his divorce, the prince returned to Casare with Gabriela Renata Thyssen, a marriage from which his fourth son, Ali Mohamed, was born, and that only lasted six years and also ended up breaking through the infidelities of the AGA Khan, a man, like his intimate friend, Juan Carlos de Borbón He had a very intense love life outside his marriages. It would not be surprising if the emeritus was this Saturday to say goodbye to his friend in Lisbon.
Karim ended up abandoning the young Annouchka when she waited for her son, after five years of relationship. It was a monumental scandal at a time when there were no social networks although history was collected by the great weekly of the moment as Paris Match o Days of France and naturally the rest of the international press. While his romance lasted, the heart magazines echoed Karim and Annouchka’s parties In the yachts where they sailed through the fashion ports of the Mediterranean, the Sky Sky stations or the horse races in which the most expensive pure people competed in the world, some of them, owned by the prince.
It is known that the child was born in the Neuilly neighborhood, A residential district of the French capital but its birth certificate was never made public. From then on, Annouchka and the son (which never officially existed), disappeared from the pages of society. Karim Aga Khan’s fortune paid the silence of that youth girlfriend, a minor when he fell into his arms. That son who lives today will be about 60 years old, will probably be the great absent in his father’s funeral.
Annouchka and the blue prince who vanished: a luxury romance, heartbreak and a mysterious baby
It was a fairy tale. Opulent parties, yacht cruises to exotic ports, flights in private airplanes to paradisiacal places, horse races and skiing in the Alps. Diamonds, skins and luxuries that only seemed to exist in the most extravagant dreams. This was the life of Annouchka von Meks, a 16 -year -old Parisian schoolgirl, when in the summer of 1959, while spending her vacation in the French Riviera, she met a young man who would change her life forever.
The magazines of the time counted even the details of how they met. In a Saint-Tropez nightclub, an unknown boy approached his table and asked him to dance. “I am the AGA Khan”, He said with a smile. Annouchka, blonde with blue eyes and with the delicate beauty of a porcelain doll, thought a joke. He had the father of his suitor, third husband of Rita Hayworth (married him after breaking with Orson Welles. His marriage to Ali Khan was in 1949 and lasted four years).
Annouchka von Meks I knew who the Aga Khan was: an older, bald man, almost 80 years old. Seeing the heir, he did not know who that skinny and shy young man who proclaimed the Aga Khan was proclaimed: he let out a laugh and replied: “Ah, of course, and I am Princess Margarita,” he said referring to the sister of the Queen of England, Isabel II. It didn’t take long to find out about the truth. Old Aga Khan had died two years before, and the boy who invited her to dance was none other than Prince Karim, the new Aga Khan. Annouchka blushed to realize his mistake and, among apologies, agreed to go out with him the next day. Thus began a romance that dazzled the high society of the time. They quickly became the center of attention. French magazine Jours de France published an article entitled “The truth about Karim and Annouchka”, which became one of his best -selling numbers. The story was dreamy: a young woman of humble origin, daughter of White Russian immigrants who run a clothing store in Paris, had conquered the most coveted man in the world. Their lives looked like a parade of luxuries: exclusive dinners, endless trips, jewels and adventures. However, Annouchka’s parents had their reservations. Although Karim was the most desired single of the time, Annouchka was only 16 years old and they were not sure that she was prepared for a relationship of such magnitude with that handsome Playboy twenty -year -old. But the romance continued, and the young woman submerged completely in the world of Prince Karim.
Despite his hedonistic lifestyle, Karim faced a huge pressure from his community. Ismaili leaders wanted him to marry an Ismailite Muslim, someone who could become the Begum, his official wife. In a revealing episode, Karim found a photo album on his desk, with images of six Muslim women with dark eyes and black hair. An attached note suggested to choose one of them as his wife and to put aside his relationship with Annouchka.
Annouchka also felt the weight of that pressure. While her romance with Karim cooled, the young woman was instructed to become Islam, a step that perhaps fed her hopes of becoming the Begum of the Aga Khan. But the signs were increasingly clear: Karim began to distance himself. His attention deviated to other women, and finally, a new blonde, Dolores Von Furstenberg Guinness, took the place of Annouchka.
An unexpected ending: The baby’s mystery
Despite the promises of love and the shared years, Annouchka was alone. While Karim continued with her life, the young Parisian discovered that she was pregnant. In 1964, he gave birth in a private clinic in Paris, in the exclusive suburb of Neuilly, where he lived with his parents. However, the baby’s birth was surrounded by an enigma. The official birth records were classified, and the municipal authorities received strict instructions: no one could access the child’s birth certificate without a direct authorization from the Von Meks family.
The mystery about the baby’s identity was never officially confirmed, But the circumstances pointed to Karim, the man who once promised a world of luxury and eternal love. For Annouchka, the fairy tale ended in melancholy, but the echoes of its history, luxury, love and abandonment, continue to resonate decades later. Annouchka stayed with his memories, a romance that marked a time and a baby whose existence remains a carefully saved mystery.
