Andrew Ali Aga Khan Embiricos, Rita Hayworth’s grandson died after an apparent suicide in his Manhattan apartment on Sunday.
Andrew Ali Aga Khan Embiricos had been battling a long and difficult drug addiction and had previously attempted suicide.
According to a friend, he had been in and out of drug rehab over the past few years though seemed in good spirits in the days leading up to his death.
Andrew Ali Aga Khan Embiricos was found lying on his bed in his apartment after apparently suffocating himself with a plastic bag. An investigation is under way.
According to The New York Post, Andrew Embiricos’ friend Aaron Edwards found his body around 9:00 p.m. when he went to check on him Sunday because Andrew had missed several appointments.
It was reported that no note was found in Andrew Embiricos’ apartment at 270 West 17th Street, and his mother, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan rushed to the scene when she heard the news.
Andrew Embiricos, 25, was the son of Rita Hayworth’s daughter Princess Yasmin, 61, who was a product of Hayworth’s third husband, Prince Aly Aga Khan.
A graduate of Fordham University with a degree in psychology, Andrew Embiricos founded a Facebook charity group that provided clothing to homeless people and was also said to have worked with HIV/AIDS advocacy groups and the Alzheimer’s Association.
Village Voice reporter Michael Musto, who knew Andrew Embiricos, wrote of his death: “I’m deeply saddened by the loss of someone with such radioactive charisma. He was a strikingly handsome, personable guy who radiated charm no matter what crisis he was weathering.”
Michael Musto also said that Andrew Embiricos had been in and out of drug rehab and had attempted suicide before, though revealed he had sounded cheerful in recent Facebook comments and was planning a trip to London with a friend.
In 2007, The Daily News’ Gatecrasher column revealed Andrew Embiricos led a double life as an amateur porn enthusiast who had posted porn videos on XTube under an alias.
Andrew Embiricos is both spiritual and Hollywood royalty, as his grandfather is Prince Aly Khan who was the leader of a sect of Islam.
Though there was no specific land that Prince Aly Khan resided over, he was considered the head of the Ismaili Muslims which are a branch of Shia Islam.
Prince Aly’s father was Aga Khan III, and in a very unusual move, he skipped a generation in the line of succession and passed his leadership role onto Prince Aly’s son, Prince Karim, (Andrew’s uncle).
While Aga Khan III officially said that the reason for the move was in order for the Ismaili people to have a younger ruler, many speculate that it was Prince Aly’s playboy lifestyle that put his father over the edge.
The marriage between Rita Hayworth and the Muslim prince was the second for Prince Aly and the third for Hayworth, who had just recently divorced the director Orson Welles when she met the Prince.
Prince Aly made headlines when he married screen siren Rita Hayworth in a lavish ceremony in Cannes, France in 1949, when the movie star was already two months pregnant with Andrew Embiricos’ mother Yasmin.
Yasmin was Rita Hayworth’s second child- and her only child from her marriage to the Pakistani prince, and she was an item of debate during the couple’s acrimonious divorce.
When Rita Hayworth found out that the Prince was spotted dancing with fellow actress Joan Fontaine, she threatened to divorce him and moved to Reno, Nevada in order to expedite the process.
The couple fought over how and where Yasmin would be raised, with the Prince insisting that she be raised Muslim and Rita Hayworth fighting for a Catholic upbringing similar to her own.
At one point, Rita Hayworth rejected a $1 million offer to raise Yasmin in accordance with her ex-husband’s Muslim faith. She issued a statement expressing her clear preference for an American upbringings, saying “Nothing will make me give up Yasmin’s chance to live here in America among our precious freedoms and habits”.
Yasmin ended up being raised by her mother in America, and the Prince died in a car accident when she was only 10 years old.
Yasmin married an economist and Greek shipping heir named Basil Embiricos in 1985, and the couple had Andrew. Much of her time was dedicated to her mother who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for many years before her 1987 death.
Yasmin was the president of Alzheimer’s Disease International and her son took an interest in the charity later in his life.
There has been an official statement from the Khan side of the family, with Andrew’s uncle Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, the current leader of the Ismaili Muslims, though it is not clear how close the relatives were.
“We do not know what happened yet, and we would appreciate everyone’s privacy for the family,” said Kris Janowski, Prince Karim’s spokesman.
Andrew Embiricos graduated from Fordham University in New York and worked as a sales executive at Virgin Atlantic.
When he wasn’t working for the jet-setting crew in his role at Virgin Atlantic or previous job in travel sales at Fairmont Raffles-Swissotel, Andrew Embiricos was in New York’s jet set.
He appeared at a number of social events both in Manhattan and in the swanky Hamptons area of Long Island.
Andrew Embiricos was a constant presence at functions dedicated to raising money and awareness for Alzheimer’s disease in honor of Hayworth.
Unsurprisingly, much of his charitable work was dedicated to Alzheimer’s disease, which was the cause of Rita Hayworth’s death in 1987.
The family is organizing Andrew Embiricos’ funeral through the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on the Upper East Side.