Mohamed Al Fayed, the father of Dodi Al Fayed and a former Fulham FC owner who was born in Egypt, passed away at the age of 94, The Guardian reported.
Nearly 26 years have passed since Dodi and Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a vehicle accident in Paris on August 31, 1997.
According to a statement released by Fulham FC, Mrs. Mohamed Al Fayed, her children, and her grandchildren wish to confirm that their beloved grandfather, father, and husband, Mohamed, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, August 30, 2023.
Fayed was the son of a teacher and was born in Alexandria. He is most known for owning Harrods.
He started working as an advisor to the Sultan of Brunei, one of the richest persons in the world, in 1966. He had previously started his own shipping company.
He and his brother Ali relocated to Britain in the 1970s, and in 1979 they acquired the Paris Ritz Hotel.
In 1985, the two brothers purchased Harrods from British industrialist Roland “Tiny” Rowland for £615 million.
The Fayeds had lied about their riches and origins to obtain the purchase, according to a 1990 government probe into the takeover.
The claims were deemed unfair by them. His initial application for British citizenship was turned down five years later.
Fayed attempted to emigrate to France, which bestowed upon him the Legion of Honor, its highest civilian honor, but was never granted citizenship.
Fayed had reportedly paid £1.5 billion to sell Harrods to a Qatari group in 2010 despite the rumors that he wanted to stay there until his passing?
In an interview with the Financial Times in 2002, he stated that he intended to have his body on display in a glass tomb on the roof of Harrods “so that people can come and visit me.”
Michael Jackson was notably invited to a game at Craven Cottage by Fayed, who famously paid £6.25 million in 1997 to purchase the Fulham football club in west London. He turned the club around so that it no longer was a bottom-dwelling group.
In 2013, he sold the club to Shahid Khan, a multibillionaire businessman.
In 1985, Fayed wed Heini Wathén, a socialite and former model from Finland, and the two had four children together: Jasmine, Karim, Camilla, and Omar.
After the passing of Dodi and Diana, he took part in a protracted campaign in which he asserted that the crash was not an accident and had been planned by the British secret agencies.
However, French authorities came to the conclusion that it was an accident, partly brought on by driver Henri Paul’s excessive velocity and blood alcohol content.
A Metropolitan police investigation headed by Lord Stevens in 2006 found no proof to support suspicions that the security services were somehow involved.
Through his support of organizations and royal family-friendly events, Al Fayed made Diana a friend. Salim, who played the millionaire, recently portrayed the link between the royal family and himself in season five of The Crown.
In 1987, he founded the Al Fayed Charitable Foundation to help poor, traumatized, and critically ill children.
In November 2022, Fayed’s net worth was $1.9 billion, per Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires.
