UK billionaire ex-Harrods owner whose son died with Princess Diana, dead at 94
- Mohamed Al-Fayed, the Egyptian tycoon owned establishment symbols such as Harrods, Fulham FC and the Ritz hotel in Paris, but was always an outsider in Britain
- His son Dodi was in a relationship with Princess Diana when they were killed in a car driven by a chauffeur who’d been drinking and was trying to evade paparazzi
Mohamed Al-Fayed, the self-made Egyptian billionaire who bought the Harrods department store and promoted the discredited conspiracy theory that the British royal family was behind the death of his son and Princess Diana, has died, his family said.
Born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, Al-Fayed began his career selling fizzy drinks and then worked as a sewing-machine salesman. He built his family’s fortune in real estate, shipping and construction, first in the Middle East and then in Europe.
Although Al-Fayed owned establishment symbols such as Harrods, Fulham and the Ritz hotel in Paris, he was always an outsider in Britain, tolerated but not embraced.
He fell out with the British government over its refusal to grant him citizenship of the country that was his home for decades, and often threatened to move to France, which gave him the Legion of Honour, its highest civilian award.
Al-Fayed – who could be charming, autocratic, vindictive, and at times wildly outspoken – spent 10 years trying to prove Diana and his son Dodi were murdered when their car crashed in a road tunnel in Paris in 1997 as they tried to outrun paparazzi photographers on motorbikes.
