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Mohamed Al-Fayed
محمد الفايد
Al-Fayed in 2011
Born(1929-01-27)27 January 1929
Alexandria, Kingdom of Egypt
Died30 August 2023(2023-08-30) (aged 94)
London, England
Burial placeBarrow Green Court
OccupationBusinessman
Spouses
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1954; div. 1956)​
  • ​
    (m. 1985)​
Children5, including Dodi and Omar

Mohamed Abdel Moneim Al-Fayed[a] (/ælˈfaɪ.ɛd/; 27 January 1929 – 30 August 2023), known as Mohamed Fayed, was an Egyptian billionaire businessman whose residence and primary business interests were in the United Kingdom from the mid-1960s. His business interests included ownership of the Hôtel Ritz Paris, and Harrods department store and Fulham Football Club, both in London. At the time of his death in 2023, Forbes estimated his wealth at US$2 billion.[1]

Fayed was married to Samira Khashoggi from 1954 to 1956, and they had a son, Dodi. Dodi was in a romantic relationship with Diana, Princess of Wales, when they both died in a car crash in Paris in 1997.

From 1997 onwards, Fayed was the subject of media scrutiny and investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and assault. In 2024, he became the subject of posthumous accusations of rape.

Early and family life

Fayed was born on 27 January 1929 in the Roshdy neighbourhood of Alexandria, in the Kingdom of Egypt,[2] the eldest son of an Egyptian primary school teacher from Asyut. His year of birth has been disputed.[3] The Department of Trade in 1988 found his date of birth was 27 January 1929.[3][4][5] His brothers Ali and Salah have been his business colleagues.[6]

Fayed was married from 1954 to 1956 to Samira Khashoggi. He worked with his brother-in-law, Saudi Arabian arms dealer and businessman Adnan Khashoggi.[7] In 1985, Fayed married the Finnish socialite and former model Heini Wathén, with whom he had four children: daughters Jasmine[8] (born 1980) and Camilla[9] (born 1985), and sons Karim[10] (born 1983) and Omar[11] (born 1987).

Sometime in the early 1970s, he began using the prefix al- (Arabic: ال) in his name, rendering his name in English as "al-Fayed" rather than simply "Fayed".[7] In Arabic names, the word al-, in conjunction with the name of an ancestor, means family of or House of.[12] This aristocratic prefix[7] led to Private Eye magazine nicknaming him the "Phoney Pharaoh".[13] His brothers Ali and Salah followed suit at the time of their acquisition of the House of Fraser in the 1980s, though by the late 1980s, both had backtracked on the practice.[14]

Egypt and Haiti

Wax sculpture of Al-Fayed, Madame Tussauds, London, July 2009

At the age of nineteen Al-Fayed was selling bottles of Coca-Cola on the streets of Alexandria, and sold Singer sewing machines at the age of twenty one.[15] In 1952 Al-Fayed was hired by a friend, Tousson El Barrawi, and the seventeen year old Adnan Khashoggi for their furniture importation business.[16] Al-Fayed excelled at the business and impressed Adhan's father, Mohamed Kashoggi, the personal physcian of the King of Saudi Arabia. In the early 1950s Al-Fayed travelled to Europe for the first time, visiting France, Italy and Switzerland.[17] Returning to Egypt, Al-Fayed confessed to his wife, Samira Kashoggi, Adhan Kashoggi's sister, that he had had an affair, and she demanded a divorce.[18] Al-Fayed terminated his partnership with Adhan Kashoggi, and secretly withdrew £100,000 from Kashoggi's Al Nasr trading company. Kashoggi later issued a writ against Al-Fayed for the return of the money, and later agreed with Al-Fayed to forgive the money and other loans and debts for Samira's freedom to remarry and return to Egypt.[19] Following Egyptian President Nassar's threats to expropropriate foreign businesses, Al-Fayed was able to take control of a small shipping company, owned by Leon Carasso, who wished to emigrate.[20] Cassaro would later claim that Al-Fayed had defaulted on the agreed payment for his business.[21] Fayed also acquired interests in other transportation companies at favourable prices. After Nasser ordered the consfication of Egyptian property in 1961, Al-Fayed transferred ownership of his Middle Eastern Navigation Company to Genoa in Italy.[22][23]

On June 12, 1964, Al-Fayed arrived in Haiti, then under the control of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier. Al-Fayed entered the country on a Kuwaiti passport, and introduced himself as Sheikh Mohamed Fayed.[24][25] Shortly after his arrival, Duvalier cancelled a ten year contract with an American company that gave them monopoly control over Haiti's oil industry, and signed a similar contract with Al-Fayed, for fifty years.[24] He also associated with the geologist George de Mohrenschildt. Fayed terminated his stay in Haiti six months later when a sample of "crude oil" provided by Haitian associates proved to be low-grade molasses.[26] Al-Fayed promised to use his connections in Dubai to help bring investment to the Caribbean island, if they allowed him to build an oil refinery, and develop the wharf at Port-au-Prince.[25] Al-Fayed had exclusive control over the collection of fees for unloading and docking at Haiti's main port, and this caused resentment in the shipping industry. Al-Fayed was 'tapped' for $30,000 by Duvalier, and rather than pay, and fearful of the growing anger of the shipping agents, Al-Fayed left Haiti in December 1964. Fayed later claimed that he was owed $2 million by the Haitian government, although the 1988 DTI report into Al-Fayed's background stated that "we have no doubt at all that Mohamed Fayed perpetrated a substantial deceit on the government and people of Haiti in 1964 ... he deprived the harbour authority of over US $100,000 of money it could ill-afford to lose" [24]

United Kingdom

Fayed then moved to England, where he lived in central London.[23] In the mid-1960s, he met the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who entrusted him with helping transform Dubai, where he set up IMS (International Marine Services) in 1968.[27] Fayed introduced British companies like the Costain Group (of which he became a director and 30% shareholder[7]), Bernard Sunley & Sons, and Taylor Woodrow to the emirate to carry out the required construction work.[28][23] He also became a financial adviser to the then Sultan of Brunei Omar Ali Saifuddien III in 1966.[7]

Fayed briefly joined the board of the mining conglomerate Lonrho in 1975 but left after a disagreement.[29] In 1979 he bought the Ritz hotel in Paris, France, for US$30 million.[30] In 1984 Fayed and his brothers purchased a 30% stake in House of Fraser, a group that included the London store Harrods, from Roland "Tiny" Rowland, the head of Lonrho. In 1985, he and his brothers bought the remaining 70% of House of Fraser for £615m. Rowland claimed that the Fayed brothers lied about their background and wealth and he put pressure on the government to investigate them. A Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) inquiry into the Fayeds was launched. The DTI's subsequent report was critical, but no action was taken against the Fayeds, and while many believed the contents of the report, others felt it was politically motivated.[31] Rowland described his relationship with the Fayed family in his book A Hero from Zero.[32]

Newspaper clipping, January 5, 1989, showing Al-Fayed with Tony Curtis

In 1998 Rowland, who died that year, accused Fayed of stealing papers and jewels from his Harrods safe deposit box. Fayed was arrested, but the charges were dropped.[33] Fayed settled the dispute with a payment to Rowland's widow; he also sued the Metropolitan Police for false arrest in 2002, but lost the case.[34] In 1994 House of Fraser went public, but Fayed retained the private ownership of Harrods.[35] He unsuccessfully applied for British citizenship twice, in 1994 and 1999.[36][37] It has been suggested that his feud with Rowland contributed to the first refusal.[3]

In 1996 Al-Fayed bought the rights to the historic British humorous magazine Punch, and it was relaunched later that year, at a cost of £3 million, under new editor Peter McKay.[38][39] Punch had previously been published from 1841 to 1992. The relaunch was not successful, with Punch failing to match its satirical competitor, Private Eye. Punch folded for a second time in 2002.[40]

In January 1997 Al-Fayed established a new political organisation, The People's Trust, to promote a crusade against a "culture of violence". The establishment of The People's Trust followed Al-Fayed's support for anti-abortion candidates and the Christian Democrat, the newspaper of the Movement for Christian Democracy.[41] The People's Trust planned to write to all candidates in the 1997 United Kingdom general election in order to identify a group of MPs who put "their consciences, their constituents and their country at the heart of their politics, rather than their party" [41] The People's Trust was dissolved in September 1998 after failing to file its accounts.[42]

After Vanity Fair published Maureen Orth's article Holy War at Harrods, [1] Al-Fayed sued the American magazine for libel in September 1995 but withdrew his suit in 1997. Al-Fayed invited Tom Bower to write his biography in 1996. Bower's biography, Fayed: The Unauthorized Biography was published in 1998. Al-Fayed announced his intention to sue, but withdrew his suit. Orth and Bower were both attempted victims of entrapment by Al-Fayed, with Al-Fayed's staff offering allegedly stolen documents to the writers.[43]

Cash-for-questions

In 1994, in what became known as the cash-for-questions affair, Fayed revealed the names of MPs he had paid to ask questions in Parliament on his behalf, but who had failed to declare their fees. It saw Conservative MPs Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith leave the government in disgrace, and a Committee on Standards in Public Life established to prevent such corruption occurring again. Fayed also revealed that cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken stayed for free at the Ritz Hotel in Paris at the same time as a group of Saudi arms dealers, leading to Aitken's subsequent unsuccessful libel case and imprisonment for perjury.[44] During this period in 1988, Al-Fayed's spokesman was Michael Cole, a former BBC journalist.[45]

Hamilton lost a subsequent libel action against Al-Fayed in December 1999[46] and a subsequent appeal against the verdict in December 2000.[47] The former MP has always denied that he was paid by Al-Fayed for asking questions in Parliament. Hamilton's libel action related to a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary broadcast on 16 January 1997[48] in which Al-Fayed made claims that the MP had received up to £110,000 in cash and other gratuities for asking parliamentary questions.[49] Hamilton's basis for his appeal was that the original verdict was invalid because Al-Fayed had paid £10,000 for documents stolen from the dustbins of Hamilton's legal representatives by Benjamin Pell.[50]

In 2003 Fayed moved from Surrey, UK, to Switzerland, alleging a breach in an agreement with the British tax authority. In 2005, he moved back to Britain, saying that he "regards Britain as home".[3] He moored a yacht called the Sokar in Monaco prior to selling it in 2014.[51]

Sale of Harrods

Fayed purchased the department store Harrods (pictured) in 1985 and sold it in 2010.

After denials that Harrods was for sale, it was sold to Qatar Holdings, the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, on 10 May 2010. A fortnight previously, Fayed had said: "People approach us from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar. Fair enough. But I put two fingers up to them. It is not for sale. This is not Marks and Spencer or Sainsbury's. It is a special place that gives people pleasure. There is only one Mecca."[52]

Harrods was sold for £1.5 billion. Fayed later said he decided to sell Harrods following the difficulty in getting his dividend approved by the trustee of the Harrods pension fund. Fayed said "I'm here every day, I can't take my profit because I have to take a permission of those bloody idiots. I say is this right? Is this logic? Somebody like me? I run a business and I need to take bloody fucking trustee's permission to take my profit".[53] Fayed was appointed honorary chairman of Harrods, a position he was scheduled to hold for at least six months.[53]

Scotland real estate

In 1972 Fayed purchased the Balnagown estate in Easter Ross in northern Scotland. From an initial 4.8 hectares (12 acres), Al-Fayed went on to build the estate up to 26,300 hectares (65,000 acres).[54] He invested more than £20 million in the estate, restored the 14th-century pink Balnagown Castle, and created a tourist accommodation business.[54] The Highlands of Scotland tourist board awarded Al-Fayed the Freedom of the Scottish Highlands in 2002, in recognition of his "efforts to promote the area".[55]

As an Egyptian with links to Scotland, Al-Fayed funded a 2008 reprint of the 15th-century chronicle Scotichronicon by Walter Bower. The Scotichronicon describes how Scota, a daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh, fled her family and landed in Scotland, bringing with her the Stone of Scone. According to the chronicle, Scotland was later named in her honour. The tale is disputed by modern historians.[56] Al-Fayed later declared that "The Scots are originally Egyptians and that's the truth."[57]

In 2009 Al-Fayed revealed that he was a supporter of Scottish independence from the United Kingdom, announcing to the Scots that "It's time for you to waken up and detach yourselves from the English and their terrible politicians...whatever help is needed for Scotland to regain its independence, I will provide it...when you Scots regain your freedom, I am ready to be your president."[57]

Charity

Fayed set up the Al Fayed Charitable Foundation in 1987 aiming to help children with life-limiting conditions and children living in poverty. The charity works mainly with charities and hospices for disabled and neglected children in the UK, Thailand, and Mongolia.[58] It works with charities including Francis House Hospice in Manchester, Great Ormond Street Hospital, and ChildLine. In September 1997, West Heath School in Sevenoaks, Kent, United Kingdom, was placed into receivership. West Heath was the former school of Diana, Princess of Wales. Al-Fayed bought the school for £2.5 million in May 1998 and it became the new premises for the Beth Marie Centre for Traumatised Children, which had previously been based in Sevenoaks. The school reopened as The New School at West Heath in September 1998.[59][60] In 2011 Mohamed Al-Fayed's daughter Camilla, who had worked as an ambassador for the charity for eight years,[61] opened the newly refurbished Zoe's Place baby hospice in West Derby, Liverpool.[62]

Fulham F.C.

Main article: Fulham F.C. § 1997–2001: Al-Fayed takeover

Al-Fayed bought west London professional football club Fulham F.C. for £6.25 million in 1997.[63] The purchase was made via Bill Muddyman's Muddyman Group.[63] His long-term aim was that Fulham would become a Premier League side within five years. In the 2000–01 season, Fulham won the First Division under manager Jean Tigana, winning 101 points and scoring 90 goals, and were promoted to the Premier League. This meant that Al-Fayed had achieved his Premier League aim a year ahead of schedule.[64] By 2002, Fulham were competing in European football, winning the Intertoto Cup and participating in the UEFA Cup. Fulham reached the 2010 UEFA Europa League final, which they lost to Atletico Madrid,[64] and continued to play in the Premier League throughout Al-Fayed's tenure as owner, which ended in 2013.[65]

Fulham temporarily left Craven Cottage while it was being upgraded to meet modern safety standards. There were fears that the club would not return to the Cottage after it was revealed that Al-Fayed had sold the first right to build on the ground to a property development firm.[66]

Al-Fayed congratulating Fulham goalscorer Brian McBride in May 2008

Fulham lost a legal case against former manager Tigana in 2004 after Al-Fayed had wrongly alleged that Tigana had overpaid more than £7m for new players and had negotiated transfers in secret.[67] In 2009, Al-Fayed said that he was in favour of a wage cap for footballers, and criticised the management of The Football Association and Premier League as "run by donkeys who don't understand business, who are dazzled by money."[68]

A statue of the American entertainer Michael Jackson was unveiled by Al-Fayed in April 2011 at Craven Cottage. In 1999 Jackson had attended a league game against Wigan Athletic at the stadium. Following criticism of the statue, Al-Fayed said "If some stupid fans don't understand and appreciate such a gift this guy gave to the world they can go to hell. I don't want them to be fans."[69] The statue was taken down by the club's new owners in 2013; Al-Fayed blamed the club's subsequent relegation from the Premier League on the 'bad luck' brought by its removal. Al-Fayed then donated the statue to the National Football Museum.[70] In March 2019, the statue was removed from the museum, with a spokesperson saying it had been planned for "several months" to introduce exhibits that "better represent" football; the removal followed accusations of child sexual abuse by Jackson in the documentary Leaving Neverland.[71]

Under Al-Fayed Fulham F.C. was owned by Mafco Holdings, based in the tax haven of Bermuda and in turn owned by Al-Fayed and his family. By 2011, Al-Fayed had lent Fulham F.C. £187 million in interest free loans.[72] In July 2013, it was announced that Al-Fayed had sold the club to Pakistani American businessman Shahid Khan, who owns the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars.[73]

Business interests

75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York

Al-Fayed's business interests included:

His major business purchases included:

  • House of Fraser Group, including Harrods (1985, £615 million; sold 2010, £1.5 billion)[77]
  • Fulham Football Club (1997, £30 million;[36] sold 2013 for between £150 and £200 million[73])
  • After the death of Wallis Simpson, Fayed took over the lease of the Villa Windsor in Paris, the former home of the Duchess of Windsor and her husband, the Duke of Windsor, previously Edward VIII.[78] Together with his valet Sydney Johnson, who had also been valet to the Duke, he organised the restoration of the villa and its collections.[79]

Media interests

In 1996 Al-Fayed established Liberty Publishing, with the goal of the company "to launch and acquire or take strategic interests in significant media businesses".[80]

The chairman of Liberty Publishing was Stewart Steven, the former editor of the Evening Standard, with John Dux the chief executive, a former managing director of News International.[80] Al-Fayed had failed in bids to buy the newspaper Today from Lonrho in 1986 and from News International in 1995. Al-Fayed believed that the British government had put pressure on Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News International not to sell the newspaper to him.[81] Andrew Neil was recruited by Liberty Publishing, and helped agree a £4 million takeover of London News Radio. The takeover later collapsed.[81]

Steven dined with Hugo Young, chairman of the Scott Trust at the Garrick Club, and offered a cheque for £17 million from Al-Fayed for The Observer newspaper. Young declined this offer, and another of £25 million.[82] A women-only radio station, Viva Radio, was bought for £3 million in May 1996.[82] Viva Radio was renamed Liberty Radio, and broadcast commentaries of Fulham F.C.'s home and away games. The station was sold to UCKG in 2000. Due to debts of £6.5 million, Liberty Publishing was wound down by Al-Fayed's brother, Ali, in 1996. Steven, Dux and Mike Hollingsworth were fired, but Andrew Neil was retained as a consultant.[83]

Property

Al-Fayed owned 55 and 60 Park Lane, and a building on South Street, Mayfair. All three buildings were secretly connected to the Dorchester Hotel, which Al-Fayed purchased for Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei.[25]

In 1995 Westminster City Council believed that Hyde Park Residences, the company letting 170 luxury flats at 55 and 60 Park Lane, had been wrongly reporting the flats as let on long leases to avoid paying higher business rates due on short tenancies.[84] The council demanded an additional £1.1 million, and Al-Fayed believed that the letting agent, Sandra Lewis-Glass had betrayed his confidence to the council.[84] After bugging Lewis-Glass's telephone calls and placing her under surveillance, John Mcnamara, the head of Al-Fayed's security and a former Metropolitan Police officer, alleged to police that she had stolen two floppy disks worth 80 pence.[85] Denying the accusation, Lewis-Glass was released without charge, and later sued for wrongful dismissal, winning £13,500.[86]

In the early 1970s Al-Fayed purchased the Castle St. Therese in the Parc de St Tropez on the French Riviera,[87] a chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland,[88] and Barrow Green Court and farm, near Oxted, Surrey.[87]

In Bocardo SA v Star Energy UK the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom denied Al-Fayed compensation after an energy company, Star Energy, had drilled for oil under his Surrey estate. Al-Fayed originally won a share of the oil proceeds at the High Court, but was later told by appeal judges he could only claim damages.[89] Bocardo SA was a company owned by Al-Fayed that owned his estates in Scotland and Surrey; it was based in Liechtenstein.[90]

Death of Dodi Fayed

Further information: Death of Diana, Princess of Wales and Conspiracy theories about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales

Background and relationship with Princess Diana

Lady Diana Spencer married Charles, Prince of Wales, then heir apparent to the British throne in 1981, becoming Princess of Wales. She was an international celebrity and a frequent visitor to Harrods in the 1980s. Al-Fayed and Dodi first met Diana and Charles in July 1986 when they were introduced at a polo tournament sponsored by Harrods.[91]

Diana and Charles divorced in 1996. She was hosted by Al-Fayed in the south of France in mid-1997, with her sons, Princes William and Harry.[92] For the holiday, Fayed bought a 195 ft yacht, the Jonikal (later renamed the Sokar).[93] Dodi and Diana later began a private cruise on the Jonikal and paparazzi photographs of the couple in an embrace were published. Diana's friend, the journalist Richard Kay, confirmed that Diana was involved in "her first serious romance" since her divorce.[94]

Dodi and Diana went on a second private cruise on the Jonikal in the third week of August, and returned from Sardinia to Paris on 30 August. Later that day, the couple privately dined at the Ritz, after the behaviour of the press caused them to cancel a restaurant reservation. They planned to spend the night at Dodi's apartment near the Arc de Triomphe.[95] In an attempt to deceive the paparazzi, a decoy car left the front of the hotel, while Diana and Dodi departed from the rear of the hotel in a Mercedes-Benz S280 driven by concierge Henri Paul.[95] Five minutes later, the car crashed in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel. Dodi and Paul were killed; Diana died later in hospital. British bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, who sustained a serious head injury, was the sole survivor of the crash. Fayed arrived in Paris a day later and viewed Dodi's body, which was returned to the United Kingdom for an Islamic funeral.[95][96]

Conspiracy theories

From February 1998, Al-Fayed maintained that the crash was a result of a conspiracy,[97] and later contended that the crash was orchestrated by MI6 on the instructions of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.[98] His claims were dismissed by a French judicial investigation, but Fayed appealed the verdict.[99][100]

The British Operation Paget, a Metropolitan police inquiry that concluded in 2006, also found no evidence of a conspiracy.[101] To Operation Paget, Al-Fayed made 175 "conspiracy claims".[102]

An inquest headed by Lord Justice Scott Baker into the deaths of Diana and Dodi began at the Royal Courts of Justice, London, on 2 October 2007 and lasted for six months. It was a continuation of the original inquest that had begun in 2004.[103]

At the Scott Baker inquest, Fayed accused the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, her sister, and numerous others, of plotting to kill the Princess of Wales.[104] Their motive, he claimed, was that they could not tolerate the idea of the Princess marrying a Muslim.[105]

Al-Fayed first claimed that the Princess was pregnant to the Daily Express in May 2001,[105] and that he was the only person who had been told. Witnesses at the inquest who said the Princess was not pregnant, and could not have been, were part of the conspiracy according to Al-Fayed.[106] Fayed's testimony at the inquest was roundly condemned in the press as farcical. Members of the British Government's Intelligence and Security Committee accused Fayed of turning the inquest into a 'circus' and called for it to be ended prematurely.[107] Lawyers representing Al-Fayed later accepted at the inquest that there was no direct evidence that either the Duke of Edinburgh or MI6 were involved in any murder conspiracy involving Diana or Dodi.[108] A few days before Al-Fayed's appearance, John Macnamara, a former senior detective at Scotland Yard and Al-Fayed's investigator for five years from 1997, was forced to admit on 14 February 2008 that he had no evidence to suggest foul play, except for the assertions Al-Fayed had made to him.[109] His admissions also related to the lack of evidence for Al-Fayed's claims of the Princess's pregnancy and the couple's engagement.[109]

The jury verdict, given on 7 April 2008, was that Diana and Dodi were "unlawfully killed" through the grossly negligent driving of Henri Paul,[110] who was intoxicated, and the pursuing vehicles.[111]

Al-Fayed's lawyers accepted that there was no evidence to support the assertion that Diana was illegally embalmed to conceal pregnancy, or that a pregnancy could be confirmed by any medical evidence.[108] They also accepted that there was no evidence to support the assertion that the French emergency and medical services had played any role in a conspiracy to harm Diana.[108] Following the Baker inquest, Al-Fayed said that he was abandoning his conspiracy campaign, and would accept the jury's verdict.[112]

Journalist Dominic Lawson wrote in The Independent in 2008 that Al-Fayed sought to concoct "a conspiracy to cover up the true circumstances" of fatalities caused by the crash "involving an intoxicated and over-excited driver (an employee of Mohamed Fayed's Paris Ritz)". He "had remarkable success in persuading elements of the tabloid press, notably the Daily Express, to give the conspiracy a fair wind."[113]

Al-Fayed financially supported Unlawful Killing (2011), a documentary film presenting his version of events.[114] It was not formally released because of the potential for libel suits.[115]

Rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment allegations

Al-Fayed was accused by multiple women of sexual harassment and assault.[116][117] Young women applying for employment at Harrods were often submitted to HIV tests and gynaecological examinations.[118] They were then selected to spend the weekend with Al-Fayed in Paris.[118] In her profile of Al-Fayed for Vanity Fair, Maureen Orth described how, according to former employees, "Fayed regularly walked the store on the lookout for young, attractive women to work in his office. Those who rebuffed him would often be subjected to crude, humiliating comments about their appearance or dress... A dozen ex-employees I spoke with said that Fayed would chase secretaries around the office and sometimes try to stuff money down women's blouses".[25]

In December 1997, the ITV current affairs programme The Big Story broadcast testimonies from former Harrods employees who spoke of how Al-Fayed routinely sexually harassed women in similar ways.[117] Al-Fayed was interviewed under caution by the Metropolitan Police after an allegation of sexual assault against a 15-year-old schoolgirl in October 2008. The case was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service when they found there was no realistic chance of conviction due to conflicting statements.[119]

A December 2017 episode of Channel 4's Dispatches programme alleged that Al-Fayed sexually harassed three female Harrods employees, and attempted to "groom" them. One of the employees was aged 17 at the time. Cheska Hill-Wood waived her right to anonymity to be interviewed for the programme.[120] The programme alleged Al-Fayed targeted young employees over a 13-year period.[121]

In September 2024, BBC News reported that more than 20 women who had worked at Harrods have alleged that Al-Fayed sexually assaulted them; five of these women accused him of raping them.[122][123] Former manager of Fulham L.F.C., Gaute Haugenes revealed in September 2024 that extra precautions were put in place to protect players from Al-Fayed whereby they were not allowed to be left alone with him. She also said that members of staff were aware that he "liked young, blonde girls".[124]

Death

Al-Fayed died in London on 30 August 2023, at the age of 94.[125][126][127] His cause of death was listed as old age and was announced on 1 September. He was buried that day at Barrow Green Court alongside Dodi,[128] after a funeral service during Friday prayers at London Central Mosque.[129]

Al-Fayed is portrayed by Salim Daw in seasons 5 and 6 of The Crown.[130][131][132]

Notes

  1. ^ Arabic: محمد عبد المنعم الفايد, romanized: Muḥammad Abdel Moneim al-Fāyid, Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [mæˈħæmmæd ʕæbdelˈmenʕem elˈfæːjed].

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