Viewers of The Crown will become acquainted with Princess Diana’s boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed during the new fifth season of the Netflix show inspired by real-life events.
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However, in the wake of their deaths, the Egyptian film producer’s father Mohamed Al-Fayed became a focal point for national grief alongside the Royal Family - but what happened to him?
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Who is Mohamed Al-Fayed?
The businessman was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1929, and moved to the UK in the mid-1960s where he still lives. He was married to Samira Khashoggi, the mother of Dodi, from 1954 to 1956. In 1985, he married Finnish model and socialite Heini Wathén, with whom he has four children - Jasmine, Karim, Camilla and Omar.
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Mohamed is believed to have made his fortune after founding a shipping company with his brothers in Egypt, which they subsequently moved to northern Italy. According to The Times, he then established a relationship with the ruler of Dubai and introduced him to British construction companies.
Mohamed Al-Fayed's eldest son Dodi dated Princess Diana
The Egyptian businessman married Heini Wathén in 1985
The businessman, who started to forge links with the Royal Family from the 1980s, famously purchased the Ritz hotel in Paris in 1979, and then acquired House of Fraser - which then owned London department store Harrods - with his brothers in 1985. He also bought Fulham FC in 1997.
Where is Mohamed Al-Fayed now?
It was Mohamed who was the inadvertent matchmaker behind the blossoming romance between Dodi, 42, and Diana, 36, in the summer of 1997. He had invited the princess and her two young sons, Prince William, 15, and Prince Harry, 13, to holiday on his yacht in the south of France - and it was there that the royal is believed to have grown close to his son.
The billionaire invited the royal to holiday on his yacht in 1997
Dodi and Diana were horrifically killed in a car crash in the August of that year after leaving Mohamed’s Ritz hotel. His son’s body was interred at a mausoleum in the grounds of his Surrey mansion.
In the wake of their deaths, Mohamed publicly accused the Queen’s husband Prince Philip of ordering British security services to kill the couple in order to stop the princess marrying a Muslim and having his child. After years of legal battles, he finally accepted the 2008 verdict of a jury - that they were unlawfully killed by grossly negligent driving.
After their deaths he embarked on a legal battle (pictured in 2007)
Since then, Mohamed - now 93 years old - has kept a low profile. When he sold Harrods to the Qatari royal family for £1.5 billion in 2010 it was announced by asset management firm Lazard that he was retiring “to spend more time with his children and grandchildren". However, he also has maintained strong connections to the department store, staying on as honorary chairman and starting his desire to be buried in a glass pyramid tomb on its roof.
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