She spoke Farsi, English, and French fluently, as well as some Spanish and Italian. She spent much of her time commuting between her home in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Paris, where her mother was living. Pahlavi studied at Brown University literature and philosophy, she was said to have graduated in 1992. However some sources say she left university before graduation due to her declining health. She was a onetime model for the designer Valentino, and suffered from anorexia nervosa, chronic low self-esteem, severe depression and chronic fatigue syndrome.