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Mohamed Al-Fayed, whose global business career influenced lives in Hollywood, Paris, London and his native Egypt, died on Thursday, August 30, at the age of 94.
His notable business achievements included owning the legendary British department store Harrods, the Ritz Hotel in Paris and Fulham Football Club in the United Kingdom.
But these successes are almost overshadowed by his relationship with Princess Diana, who died in a car accident on August 31, 1997, and Al-Fayed’s son Dodi, with whom she had a relationship.
Mohammad Al-Fayed’s role in this pairing and his own friendship with Diana were covered in detail in the final season of the Netflix series about the royal family, The Crown. It also adds an eerie touch to his death, coming so close to the anniversary of the fatal accident that killed Dodi and Diana.
In the years following the crash, Al-Fayed was criticized in Britain for claiming that the accident was a murder ordered by the royal family and British intelligence, acting because the couple were to get married. The accident, which was allegedly caused by a high-speed attempt to evade paparazzi, was investigated extensively, with no evidence to support Al-Fayed’s allegations.
Al-Fayed formed a close relationship with the late Princess of Wales as they were involved in the same charities and attended similar events.
After the announcement of his death, there were statements from Al-Fayed’s business properties.
“Everyone at Fulham was incredibly saddened to learn of the death of our former owner and chairman Mohamed Al-Fayed. “We owe Mohamed a huge debt of gratitude for what he has done for our club and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this dark time,” Fulham FC said in a statement on social media.
The Egyptian tycoon sold the football club in 2013, shortly after selling Harrods in 2010. He bought the nearly bankrupt The Ritz Hotel in Paris for $30 million and invested $250 million in renovating the property.
Al-Fayed was born in 1929 in Roshdy, a neighborhood in Alexandria in the Kingdom of Egypt, as it was called before the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. In the 1970s, he added the fancy prefix “Al” to his last name.
Before buying Harrods, he owned a shipping company in Egypt and eventually opened an office in London.
While Al-Fayed was engaged in his international business, his son Dodi was exploring Hollywood.
In 1979, Al-Fayed founded a film production company, Allied Stars Ltd., and appointed his son Dodi as managing director.
The son’s venture led to seven Academy Awards for “Chariots of Fire” in 1982, including Best Picture. The rest of the company’s output did not perform as well at the box office.
Al-Fayed was married twice: first from 1953 to 1956 to the Saudi Arabian author Samira Khashoggi, with whom he had Dodi.
In 1985 he married the Finnish socialite and former model Heini Wathén, with whom he had four more children: Jasmine, Karim, Camilla and Omar.
A funeral service was held at London’s Central Mosque in Regents Park on Friday, following Islamic conventions of burying the dead as quickly as possible, ideally within 24 hours.
He was subsequently buried at Barrow Green Court, his 17th-century country heap, in Oxted, Surrey, in the family mausoleum next to his son Dodi.