All About Rita Hayworth’s Two Daughters, Including How Her Youngest Became Her Caretaker
All About Rita Hayworth’s Two Daughters, Including How Her Youngest Became Her Caretaker
Giovana GelhorenThu, October 22, 2026 at 12:00 AM UTC
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Rita HayworthCredit: Getty ImagesTHE GIST -
Rita Hayworth welcomed her first daughter, Rebecca Welles, with her then-husband, Orson Welles, in 1944.
Her second daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, came from her marriage to Prince Aly Salomone Khan. She was born in 1949.
Yasmin went on to become her mother’s caretaker during Hayworth’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She died in 1987.
From movies like Gilda (1946) and The Lady from Shanghai (1947), Rita Hayworth quickly became one of the biggest movie stars and beauty icons of the ’40s. But while her now-classic movies live on, many of her viewers might not know she was also a mom of two.
Hayworth first became a mom in December 1944 when she welcomed her daughter, Rebecca Welles, with her second husband, actor and director Orson Welles. Five years later, after her split from Welles and her marriage to her third husband, Prince Aly Salomone Khan, a Pakistani prince and diplomat, she welcomed her youngest daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, in 1949.
“She was just the most wonderful mother,” Yasmin reminisced to Fox News in 2018. “She introduced tennis and golf to me. And she loved her work. I knew she was famous, but she was my mom, a regular mom.”
While Rebecca largely lived a life away from the spotlight, Yasmin became a caretaker for her mother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1980. “It was something natural,” Yasmin said of her decision to give up her career to look after her mom. “She was so sweet and loving. My motherly instincts just took over. It was a natural thing for me to help her and go through this with her.”
On May 14, 1987, Hayworth died due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease. Yasmin has carried on her legacy, raising money and awareness for the disease ever since.
Below, find out everything there is to know about Rita Hayworth’s two daughters, Rebecca and Yasmin.
Rebecca Welles
Rebecca Welles and Rita HayworthCredit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Hayworth first became a mom when she welcomed her daughter, Rebecca Welles, with her husband, Orson Welles, on December 17, 1944. Hayworth and the Citizen Kane director had been married since 1943, reportedly separated in 1946, and finalized their divorce a year later, per People.
Growing up, Rebecca followed her mother’s career around the world, being photographed in places like Switzerland, London, New York City, and Paris. In her teenage years, she followed in her parents’ acting footsteps and started acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. After that, Rebecca studied acting at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, while also majoring in French, geology, and English literature.
Despite her interest in acting, she never became a professional actress, aside from a few early appearances like a 1970 Jim Beam bourbon commercial with her father, and built a life out of the spotlight in Tacoma.
“Sometimes I am [really] bitter about ... what being a child of celebrities has done to me,” she told Roto in 1972, per The Telegraph. “Mother and Father have never been to my home in Tacoma. As far as they are concerned, I’m on my own.”
As for her personal life, Rebecca gave birth for the first time in 1966 to her son Marc McKerrow, whom she then placed for adoption. The story of his adoption later became the focus of the 2008 documentary Prodigal Sons, which chronicled McKerrow’s journey to trace his roots. McKerrow and Rebecca never reconnected.
On October 10, 1985, her father died of an apparent heart attack. Two years later, Hayworth passed away on May 14, 1987, due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease. Per People, she was photographed placing flowers on her mother’s casket alongside sister Yasmin at her funeral.
Rebecca died from cancer in 2004. At the time, she was 60 years old and married to Guy Manning. She was also a stepmom to Manning’s three children: Kristine Manning Scholtz, Michael Manning, and Brandi Manning.
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Princess Yasmin Aga Khan
Princess Yasmin Khan and Rita HayworthCredit: Getty Images
Hayworth’s second daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, was born on December 18, 1949, to her husband, Prince Aly Salomone Khan. Hayworth and Aly were married from 1949 until they split in 1953.
Despite the marriage ending, the former couple continued to be friends for the sake of their daughter. “My earliest memories of my mother and father together were when I was 8 or 9,” Yasmin wrote for People in June 1987, adding, “Theirs was a truly good relationship.”
In fact, Yasmin has shared many sweet memories of her parents over the years. “I remember ... spending a lot of time with her just sitting by the pool at our home and talking,” she wrote on People. “We would swim, laugh and giggle, and talk just like two close friends. We really enjoyed being with each other, sharing experiences and love.”
Despite the fond memories, Yasmin also described her mother as “quite strict.” “She allowed me to watch television only on weekends when there was no school,” she remembered. “In my early teens, I wasn’t allowed to go out on dates, but could have my boyfriends and girlfriends over to the house. I wasn’t allowed to go on a date alone until I was 16.”
At just 10 years old, her father was killed in a car accident. While mourning the loss alongside her mother, Hayworth started exhibiting symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. “I just noticed that in some phone calls, she was slightly off and repetitive,” Yasmin recalled to Fox News. At the time, she was attending boarding school. “I didn’t understand it. And then I would go home and find the same thing. Repetition, a bit of paranoia, hearing things that weren’t there. And then hitting the panic button for the police. It started slowly back then. And that would be in the ‘60s.”
Yasmin had an interest in classical singing growing up, but gave them up to care for her mother. “When I went to university, I was a music major,” she told Globe and Mail in 2019. “I was going to go to Europe to study, and that’s when my mother’s disease heightened, and it was really necessary that I step in. I said, ‘Okay, this is more important than my career in music.’ And that was the right decision. I don’t have any regrets.”
Princess Yasmin Aga KhanCredit: Barry Brecheisen/Getty Images for Alzheimer's Association
In addition to being a full-time caretaker to her mom, who was officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 1980, Yasmin was appointed as her mother’s conservator after Hayworth was declared legally unable to care for herself in 1981, per The New York Times.
Caring for her mother sparked in Yasmin a passion for advocacy and philanthropy. In 1984, she launched the Rita Hayworth Gala, which has raised more than $86 million to “advance the mission of the Alzheimer’s Association,” in her mother’s honor.
“My fight to end Alzheimer’s began in 1981 when my mother ... was diagnosed with the disease,” she told Classic Chicago. “I made the decision to share her story in the hopes of helping others. I knew this would become my life’s work.” Yasmin also became a member of several Alzheimer’s organizations, including Alzheimer’s Disease International, of which she became the president, and the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association of America, of which she served as the vice president.
“Just having the experience of a loved one with the disease, and seeing the decline and knowing so many people have [it]… That motivates me,” Yasmin said of her mission to Fox News. “I’m hoping that we find the answers in my lifetime. That’s been my motivation. We need to find a cure.”
On the personal side, Yasmin was married to Basil Embiricos from 1985 to 1987. Together, they welcomed a son, Andrew Ali Aga Khan Embiricos, in 1985. “I would bring him in and talk to [my mom, who] ... was right next door,” Yasmin told Fox News. “I wasn’t sure if she knew or not, but I thought it was important to be there.”
In December 2011, Andrew was found dead in his home. He was 25. “Of course Princess Yasmin Aga Khan and her former husband are deeply saddened by the death of their son Andrew Embiricos in New York on Sunday night,” a spokesperson for the Aga Khan Foundation told People. “They would really appreciate it if their privacy would be respected in this very difficult moment.”
For her lifetime advocacy, Yasmin was honored with an Alzheimer’s Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, per Deseret News. In 2022, she became a Knight of the Legion of Honor, an award considered to be France’s highest order of merit.
on InStyle
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
