Mohamed Al Fayed whose son was killed in a car crash with Princess Diana, died this week at 94, his family said on Friday (September 1).
Al Fayed was the longtime owner of Horrods department store and the Fulham Football Club and was reportedly devastated by his son Dodi Fayed’s death in a car crash in Paris with Diana 26 years ago.
He spent years mourning and fighting the British establishment who he blamed for their deaths.
“Mrs Mohamed Al Fayed, her children and grandchildren wish to confirm that her beloved husband, their father and their grandfather, Mohamed, has passed away peacefully of old age on Wednesday August 30, 2023. He enjoyed a long and fulfilled retirement surrounded by his loved ones,″ his family said in a statement released by the Fulham club. Al Fayed was convinced Dodi and Diana were killed in a conspiracy masterminded by Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II.
He alleged that the royal family orchestrated the accident as they did not like Diana dating an Egyptian. Al Fayed claimed that Diana was planning to marry Dodi and was pregnant. He alleged that the royal family could not bear that the princess was marrying a Muslim.
In 2008, Al Fayed told an inquest the list of alleged conspirators included Philip, two former London police chiefs and the CIA.
The inquest concluded that Diana and Dodi died because of the reckless actions of their driver and paparazzi chasing the couple. Separate inquiries in the U.K. and France also concluded there was no conspiracy. Al Fayed was the son of a school inspected and was born on January 27, 1929 in Egypt.
After early investments in shipping in Italy and the Middle East, he moved to Britain in the 1960s and started building an empire.
At the height of his wealth, Al Fayed owned the Ritz hotel in Paris and Fulham soccer team in London as well as Harrods, the luxury department store in the capital’s tony Knightsbridge neighborhood. Al Fayed was also friends with Michael Jackson and had a statue of the pop star erected outside Fulham’s London stadium in 2011, two years after Jackson’s death.
Never popular with Fulham fans, it was removed in 2013 by Al Fayed’s successor as team owner, Shahid Khan.
