Following her father's death in Egypt from non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 1980, the family settled in America, where Princess Leila attended a state school in Massachusetts before going on to study at Brown University, graduating in 1992.
Princess Leila never married and spent most of her time commuting between her home in Connecticut and Europe. She suffered from anorexia nervosa and severe depression and was found dead in her room in the Hotel Leonard in London, England. She was interred near her maternal grandmother, Farideh Ghotbi Diba, in Cimetière de Passy, Paris, France.