Mohamed Al Fayed has passed away at the age of 94. He is the father of Dodi Al Fayed who died in a car accident along with Diana, Princess of Wales. Born in Egypt, Mohamed built a business empire in the Middle East before moving to the UK in the 1970s.
However, he was never able to realize his ambition to obtain a British passport. He spent his last years constantly questioning the circumstances of Dodd and Diana's death. Al Fayed had remained largely out of the public eye for the past decade, living in his Surrey mansion with his wife Heini. Fulham Football Club, which Al Fayed owned for many years, said it was "deeply saddened to learn" of his death. Under his ownership, Fulham FC rose from the third tier to the Premier League.
WEALTH
Al Fayed started his business by selling sodas on the streets of his hometown of Alexandria in Egypt to become a big name in the business. His ascension came after he met his first wife, Samira Khashoggi, the sister of millionaire Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who employed him in his business in Saudi Arabia. This work helped him make new connections in Egypt. Although the marriage lasted just over 2 years, Al Fayed opened a shipping business.
In 1966, he became an advisor to one of the richest men in the world, the Sultan of Brunei. He moved to Britain in 1974 and 5 years later bought the "Paris Ritz" hotel with his brother Ali for 20 million pounds. They then acquired Harrods shopping center in 1985 for £615m. In 1987, he founded the "Al Fayed" Charity Foundation to improve the lives of poor, traumatized and very sick young people.
Death of Dodd and Diana
It was from his Ritz hotel in Paris that his son Dodi, a film producer, and his then-partner Diana, Princess of Wales, left before the car crash that killed them both in 1997. Al Fayed never recovered from the trauma of the accident obsessing over speculation about the issue. After an inquest he paid for it was suggested that the deaths were carried out on the orders of Prince Philip and with the connivance of MI6.
These were considered "conspiracy theories" by experts and rejected by the courts. Al Fayed failed twice to secure British citizenship. On the second occasion, in 1995, angered by the rejection, he told the press that he had paid two Conservative ministers to raise the issue in the House of Commons. Both ministers left the government. In 2010, Al Fayed sold Harrods to Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. Nearly half of the purchase price was used to pay off the company's debts.