Mohamed Al-Fayed

Mohamed Al-Fayed was an Egyptian businessman, born in Alexandria on 27 January 1929 and died in London on 30 August 2023, whose interests included Harrods department store, the Hôtel Ritz Paris and Fulham Football Club. At his death Forbes estimated his wealth at US$2 billion. ¹

Fayed was born in the Roshdy neighbourhood of Alexandria, the eldest son of a primary school teacher from Asyut; his year of birth was disputed during his lifetime, and a 1988 Department of Trade and Industry inquiry found it to be 1929. ¹ He began as a street seller in Alexandria, worked in the Khashoggi family's trading business in the 1950s, and built shipping interests in Egypt before moving them abroad as the Nasser government confiscated property; after a brief, controversial episode in Haiti in 1964 he settled in London. ¹ He married Samira Khashoggi in 1954; their son Dodi died alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, in a Paris car crash in 1997, and Fayed spent years claiming the crash had been arranged, a claim official inquiries rejected. ¹ He was married to Heini Wathén from 1985. ¹ After his death in 2023, a funeral service was held for him during Friday prayers at London Central Mosque, and he was buried beside Dodi at Barrow Green Court; no source names a school or order for him. ¹

In Dubai from the late 1960s Fayed advised Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum and founded International Marine Services in 1968, helping to build the emirate's ports. ¹ In Britain he and his brothers bought the House of Fraser group, including Harrods, in 1985 after a bitter takeover battle; he sold Harrods to Qatar Holdings in 2010. ¹ He owned the Ritz Hotel in Paris from 1979 and Fulham Football Club from 1997 to 2013. ¹ His repeated applications for British citizenship were refused, and his feud with the British establishment deepened after 1997. ¹ From 1995 onwards he faced media scrutiny over allegations of sexual harassment at Harrods; after his death, in 2024, more than 200 women came forward with accusations of rape and sexual assault against him. ¹

• The source entities cited above, registered under data/source/.