Through his mother, Firouzeh Bakhtiar-Bakhtiariha, he traces his descent from Iran's ancient Bakhtiari tribe. His great-grandfather General Gholam-Hossein Khan Bakhtiar (Sardar Mohtashem), was Iran's Minister of War, while his grandfather Abdolhamid Bakhtiar was a Majles deputy. Many of his other relatives, such as the late Iranian Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar and General Teymour Bakhtiar (two of his great-uncles), as well as the second wife of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Queen Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari, to name a few, were also notable figures in the Pahlavi and Qajar eras.