Although assured that she could continue to practice her Catholic faith privately after her marriage, Maria Gabriella declined the Shah’s proposal. (Thank goodness, as she would otherwise have been swept up in the Iranian Revolution!) Grace and the Shah of Iran became acquainted near the end of 1949 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel during the Shah’s official visit to America. Grace’s childhood friend (and later, her bridesmaid) Maree Frisby Rambo said in an interview with biographer Wendy Leigh that Kelly and the Shah had gone on at least six dates. The Shah had been the ruler of Iran since 1941, and was thirty years old at the time. The Shah besieged Kelly with vast amounts of jewelery including: a gold birdcage housing a diamond sapphire bird, a gold vanity case with a clasp set with thirty-two diamonds, and a gold bracelet with an intricate pearl and diamond face. Grace… had no intentions of marrying the Shah, and immediately sent the gifts back. She decided to keep the jewels and later presented the pieces to her bridesmaids as keepsakes on the eve of her wedding.[8]
