Mohamed Al Fayed

Mohamed Al Fayed
Born	Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed 27 1, 1929
Birthplace	Alexandria, Egypt
Died	Template:Death date and age London, England
Nationality	Egyptian
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	Former owner of Harrods, Fulham F.C.; father of Dodi Fayed
Children	6

Mohamed Al Fayed (born Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed; 27 January 1929 – 30 August 2023) was an Egyptian businessman who became one of the most prominent and controversial figures in British commercial and public life during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. He was best known as the owner of the Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, London, which he acquired in 1985 and sold in 2010, and as the owner of Fulham Football Club from 1997 to 2013. He was also the father of Dodi Fayed, who died alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997 — a tragedy that thrust Al Fayed into a prolonged and highly public dispute with British authorities over the circumstances of their deaths. In the years following his own death in 2023, Al Fayed became the subject of a major criminal investigation by the Metropolitan Police after dozens and ultimately more than one hundred individuals came forward with allegations of sexual abuse and other crimes committed during his tenure at Harrods. In 2025, Harrods applied to remove statues of Al Fayed from its premises, and French police opened a separate investigation into trafficking claims linked to the late businessman.

Early Life

Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed was born on 27 January 1929 in Alexandria, Egypt. He grew up in a middle-class Egyptian family. Details of his early upbringing and family background were subjects of dispute throughout his life, particularly during his later efforts to obtain British citizenship. Al Fayed began his career in commerce in Egypt and the Middle East, developing connections in trade and shipping during the 1950s and 1960s. He relocated to Europe and eventually settled in the United Kingdom, where he would build his business empire over the following decades.

Al Fayed's early commercial activities included involvement in shipping and trade in the Gulf region. He developed business relationships in several countries, and by the 1970s had established himself as a figure of growing wealth and commercial influence. His brother, Ali Fayed, was frequently involved in his business ventures. The brothers' business interests expanded across multiple sectors including property, trade, and luxury retail.

Career

Acquisition of Harrods

Al Fayed's most significant business achievement was his acquisition of the House of Fraser group, which included the iconic Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, London. In 1985, Al Fayed, together with his brothers, purchased the House of Fraser for approximately £615 million. The acquisition was controversial from the outset, with questions raised about the source of the Fayed brothers' wealth and their background. The takeover was investigated by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which published a critical report in 1990 questioning the Fayeds' claims about their family wealth and background. Despite the controversy, the acquisition was not reversed, and Al Fayed retained control of Harrods.

Under Al Fayed's ownership, Harrods maintained its position as one of the world's most famous luxury department stores. He invested significantly in the store's physical infrastructure and its brand identity. Among the most visible symbols of his ownership were statues depicting Al Fayed as an Egyptian pharaoh, which were installed in the store. In 2025, after revelations about abuse allegations, Harrods applied to local authorities for permission to remove these sculptures.

Al Fayed's stewardship of Harrods lasted twenty-five years. He sold the store in 2010 to Qatar Holdings, the investment arm of the Qatar Investment Authority, for a reported £1.5 billion. The sale marked the end of one of the most recognisable chapters of personal ownership of a major British retail institution.

Fulham Football Club

In 1997, Al Fayed purchased Fulham Football Club, then a lower-division English football team. Under his ownership, the club experienced a period of significant investment and sporting improvement, rising through the league divisions to reach the Premier League. Fulham's promotion to the top tier of English football was considered a notable achievement during Al Fayed's tenure. He was a visible and sometimes eccentric owner, famously commissioning a statue of pop star Michael Jackson to be erected outside Fulham's Craven Cottage ground. He sold the club in 2013 to Shahid Khan, an American businessman.

The Ritz Paris

Al Fayed also owned the Hôtel Ritz Paris, one of the most prestigious hotels in the world, located on the Place Vendôme in Paris. The Ritz was the last location where Dodi Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales, were seen alive before their fatal car crash in August 1997. Al Fayed's ownership of the hotel connected him indelibly to the circumstances surrounding the crash and its aftermath.

Political Controversies

Al Fayed was involved in several political controversies during his career in Britain. He was notably connected to the "cash-for-questions" affair in the 1990s, in which he alleged that he had made payments to Members of Parliament — specifically Conservative MPs Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith — in exchange for them asking questions in the House of Commons on his behalf. The scandal contributed to the downfall of Hamilton's political career and became emblematic of concerns about parliamentary corruption during the Major government era.

Al Fayed's repeated applications for British citizenship were denied by successive governments, a source of considerable personal frustration that he attributed to establishment bias against him. He frequently and publicly criticised the British establishment, the Royal Family, and the intelligence services, alleging that they were engaged in conspiracies against him and his family.

Death of Dodi Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales

On 31 August 1997, Al Fayed's eldest son, Emad "Dodi" Fayed, was killed alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris. The couple's driver, Henri Paul, and the couple themselves died in the crash; bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived with serious injuries. The deaths generated an extraordinary worldwide outpouring of grief and a prolonged public debate about the circumstances of the crash.

Al Fayed maintained for years that the crash was not an accident but the result of a deliberate plot orchestrated by the British intelligence services, allegedly at the behest of the Royal Family, to prevent Diana from marrying his son Dodi. These claims were investigated at length. In 2008, an inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing due to grossly negligent driving by Henri Paul and the pursuing paparazzi, not a conspiracy. No evidence was found to support Al Fayed's claims of a murder plot. Despite this, Al Fayed continued to advance his conspiracy theories publicly until late in his life.

Abuse Allegations and Investigations

Initial Allegations

During and after his lifetime, Mohamed Al Fayed was the subject of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, abuse, and exploitation. Reports of inappropriate behaviour towards female employees at Harrods had circulated for decades, but during his lifetime, few formal investigations resulted in public accountability. A 2025 investigative report by Sussex Bylines detailed four decades of disclosures and what it characterised as "institutional denial," arguing that warnings about Al Fayed's conduct were repeatedly ignored by British authorities and institutions.

Post-Death Investigation

Following Al Fayed's death on 30 August 2023, a significantly larger number of individuals came forward with allegations. By August 2025, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that 146 people had reported crimes as part of its investigation into the former Harrods owner. The police described individuals as victims of a range of alleged crimes. The Metropolitan Police stated that it was examining how historic allegations had been handled, after initially receiving reports from 21 women accusing Al Fayed of abuse.

The investigation raised substantial questions about institutional failure and complicity. Accusers and their representatives argued that Harrods as an institution, as well as law enforcement agencies and other bodies, had failed over many years to act on complaints and warnings about Al Fayed's conduct. The scale of the alleged offending, spanning decades and involving a large number of individuals, drew comparisons in British media to other high-profile institutional abuse cases.

Trafficking Allegations and French Investigation

In November 2025, French police opened a separate investigation into trafficking allegations connected to Al Fayed. An American woman, Pelham Spong, told French police that she had been trafficked in Paris at the behest of Al Fayed before being sent to London. She alleged that she had been offered a salary of €65,000 for what amounted to sexual servitude.

Spong publicly criticised the Metropolitan Police for its handling of her case, stating that British investigators were "not calling it sex trafficking" despite the nature of her allegations. The Guardian reported that the Met's refusal to classify the case as trafficking prompted criticism from advocates and accusers alike.

The French investigation represented a significant international expansion of the legal scrutiny surrounding Al Fayed's conduct and raised further questions about the cross-border nature of the alleged offences.

Harrods' Response

In the wake of the abuse revelations, Harrods — which had been under new ownership since 2010 — took steps to distance itself from its former owner. In September 2025, the store applied to local authorities for permission to remove sculptures depicting Al Fayed as an Egyptian pharaoh that had been installed during his ownership. The removal of the statues was described as part of the store's effort to address the legacy of its former owner's conduct.

Institutional Failures

The Sussex Bylines investigation published in 2025 documented what it described as four decades of disclosure about Al Fayed's behaviour and corresponding institutional denial. The investigation argued that multiple British institutions — including law enforcement, regulatory bodies, and corporate entities — had received warnings and complaints about Al Fayed's conduct over a period spanning from the 1980s to the 2020s, but that these were systematically ignored, dismissed, or insufficiently pursued. The report characterised the pattern as one in which power and wealth insulated Al Fayed from accountability.

The question of how Al Fayed was able to operate with apparent impunity for so many years became a significant focus of public discourse in Britain. Critics pointed to the broader institutional culture that allowed wealthy and powerful individuals to evade scrutiny, drawing parallels with other cases such as those involving Jimmy Savile and Jeffrey Epstein.

Personal Life

Mohamed Al Fayed was married multiple times. His most prominent marriage was to Finnish socialite Heini Wathén in 1985, with whom he had several children. He had six children in total, including his eldest son Emad "Dodi" Fayed, whose death in 1997 alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, became one of the defining events of Al Fayed's life. Al Fayed was a resident of the United Kingdom for many decades, though he retained his Egyptian nationality after his repeated applications for British citizenship were denied.

Al Fayed maintained residences in multiple countries, including the United Kingdom and France. He was known for his outspoken public persona, his confrontational relationship with the British establishment, and his willingness to engage in protracted public disputes with politicians, the Royal Family, and the media.

Al Fayed died on 30 August 2023 in London at the age of 94. At the time of his death, he was described in some outlets as a billionaire, although precise figures regarding his wealth varied among sources.

Legacy

Mohamed Al Fayed's legacy is shaped by deeply contrasting aspects of his life and conduct. During his decades as a prominent London businessman, he was a highly visible figure in British commerce, sport, and public life. His ownership of Harrods and Fulham Football Club made him a recognisable personality, and his vocal campaigns against what he perceived as establishment injustice — particularly regarding his son's death and his denied citizenship applications — brought him frequent media attention.

However, the revelations that emerged after his death in 2023 fundamentally altered the public understanding of his life. The scale of abuse allegations — with 146 individuals reporting crimes to the Metropolitan Police by August 2025 — and the accompanying evidence of decades of institutional failure to act on warnings about his conduct, transformed his public reputation. The subsequent French trafficking investigation and the removal of his commemorative statues from Harrods further underscored the degree to which his legacy had been revised.

The Al Fayed case became a focal point in British public discussion about institutional accountability, the protection afforded to powerful individuals, and the failures of law enforcement and corporate governance in addressing allegations of sexual abuse over extended periods. The Sussex Bylines investigation characterised the pattern surrounding Al Fayed as emblematic of how "power protected" individuals from consequences over decades.

The case also raised questions about Harrods' corporate responsibility during the years of Al Fayed's ownership. Legal actions by accusers against the store continued after the abuse allegations became public, testing the extent to which successor owners and institutions could be held accountable for the conduct of former proprietors.

Al Fayed's life thus presents a study in contrasts: the public-facing narrative of a self-made tycoon and grieving father stood in stark opposition to the allegations of systematic abuse that emerged posthumously. The ongoing investigations and legal proceedings ensure that the assessment of his legacy remains subject to further development.