Alireza Pahlavi, the youngest son of the late Shah of Iran, took his own life in his Boston home early Tuesday morning, according to a statement by his brother. He was 44.

“Like millions of young Iranians, he too was deeply disturbed by all the ills fallen upon his beloved homeland, as well as carrying the burden of losing a father and a sister in his young life,” Reza Pahlavi said on his website. “Although he struggled for years to overcome his sorrow, he finally succumbed.”

His father, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was overthrown in 1979 during the Iranian Revolution and died in exile in Cairo in 1980. Alireza’s sister, Leila Pahlavi, killed herself in 2001.

Alireza Pahlavi, who was born in Tehran in 1966, came to the United States in 1979. After receiving a degree in music from the University, Alireza earned a master’s from Columbia in 1992 in Iranian studies. At the time of his death, he was pursuing a doctorate in ancient Iranian studies at Harvard.