Former Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed
Allegations of abuse against the former Harrods owner
Mohamed Al-Fayed is said to have abused numerous women.
© imago/Avalon.red
The BBC reveals dark allegations against former Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed. He is said to have harassed and raped women.
About a year after the death of Mohamed Al-Fayed (1929-2023), The British broadcaster BBC has made public a series of allegations of abuse against the former owner of the luxury London department store Harrods. Numerous women accuse the entrepreneur of sexually harassing or raping them. The BBC cites statements from more than 20 former female employees.
Women accuse Mohamed Al-Fayed of serious abuse
The allegations were confirmed by research for the documentary and the five-part podcast “Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods” The BBC has revealed the allegations. In the podcast, some of the women speak for themselves. It is also said that the Harrods department store not only failed to intervene during the time that Al-Fayed was the owner, but also helped to cover up allegations of abuse.
A woman quoted in the report describes Al-Fayed as a “monster” and a “sexual predator with no moral compass.” He treated Harrods employees like his “toys” and “actively cultivated fear.”
The current owners of Harrods said they were “deeply appalled” by the allegations and that Al-Fayed’s victims had been let down. They offered their sincerest apologies.
Lawyer calls Al-Fayed “monster”
A lawyer representing several of the women alleged to have been victims of Al-Fayed told the broadcaster: “The spider web of corruption and abuse in this company was unbelievable and very dark.” At a press conference held by the women’s legal team in London on Friday (September 20), lawyer Dean Armstrong also said he had “never seen a case as horrific as this one.” He described the case as a combination of the “most horrific elements from the cases of Jeffrey Epstein (1953-2019), film producer Harvey Weinstein (72) and British presenter Jimmy Savile (1926-2011).” Al-Fayed was a “monster” who profited from a system.
The legal team also includes women’s rights lawyer Gloria Allred (83), who has represented women in numerous high-profile abuse cases in her career. “I am very familiar with how powerful men use their wealth, position, power and fame to sexually abuse women and girls,” she said at the press conference. Beneath the “glitz and glamour” of Harrods, there was a “toxic, unsafe and abusive environment”.
Since the BBC published its original article on September 19, 2024, more women have contacted the broadcaster, including at least 37 women via a website run by the legal team.
There were allegations of abuse against Mohamed Al-Fayed during his lifetime – but not as detailed and serious as in the new BBC report. The Egyptian-born man died on August 30, 2023 at the age of 94.
Mohamed Al-Fayed was the owner of Harrods from 1985 to 2010
Mohamed Al-Fayed became internationally known primarily through the relationship between his son Dodi (1955-1997) and Princess Diana (1961-1997). In Great Britain, however, the businessman made a name for himself as early as the 1980s – among other things as the owner of the luxury Ritz hotel in Paris, the football club Fulham FC and the Harrods department store.
In 1974, Al-Fayed, already a successful entrepreneur through his marriage to the sister of a millionaire Saudi arms dealer, moved to his adopted home in Britain. In 1985, he took over the Harrods department store. In 2010, he sold Harrods – according to media reports, for 1.5 billion pounds (just under 1.8 billion euros).
Al-Fayed also gained negative attention through various conspiracy theories he put forward while fleeing from paparazzi in a tunnel in Paris following the deaths of his son and Princess Diana.