Former Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed has died aged 94

Former owner of Harrods
Mohamed Al Fayed has passed away at the age of 94

Egyptian-born businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed has died. He was 94 years old. Al-Fayed died almost 26 years to the day after the Paris car crash that killed his eldest son Dodi (1955-1997) and Princess Diana (1961-1997). The tragedy happened on August 31, 1997.

In a statement released by Fulham FC, Quoted from The Guardian, among others, his family said: “Ms. Mohamed Al-Fayed, her children and grandchildren wish to confirm that their beloved husband, father and grandfather Mohamed passed away on Wednesday 30 August 2023, of old age died peacefully.” The family went on to say, “He has enjoyed a long and fulfilling retirement surrounded by loved ones. The family have asked that their privacy be respected at this time.” Mohamed Al-Fayed once bought the Fulham football club.

The career of Mohamed Al Fayed

Mohamed Al-Fayed was born in Alexandria, the son of a primary school teacher. Before making a name for himself as a hotel and department store owner, he earned his living as a Coca-Cola street vendor and sewing machine salesman. Mohamed Al-Fayed’s first major fortune came when he married arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi’s sister, Samira Khashoggi. This gave him a management position in a Saudi Arabian import company. Al-Fayed had his son Dodi with Samira in 1955.

Over time, Mohamed Al-Fayed built his own empire and made contacts, including in London. After founding a shipping company in Egypt, he attracted the attention of one of the richest men in the world: the Sultan of Brunei, who appointed Al-Fayed as his financial advisor in the 1960s.

Move to London

In the 1970s, Mohamed Al-Fayed finally moved to London, where he later bought, among other things, one of the most famous department stores – Harrods – and in his second marriage with a Finn in the 1980s founded a new family and had four more children. In the meantime he had already bought a luxury hotel in Paris and was a board member of a mining company.

Princess Diana and Mohamed Al-Fayed are said to have first met in 1986 at a polo match he sponsored in Windsor. Dodi and Diana, on the other hand, are said to have first met on one of Mohamed Al-Fayed’s yachts.

After Diana and Dodi were involved in a car accident in Paris in August 1997, Mohamed Al-Fayed launched one of the many conspiracy theories that are still being discussed today. At the time, he firmly believed that Diana and Dodi were victims of an assassination attempt.

Al-Fayed later lived in Switzerland and Monaco. According to “Forbes” he is said to have owned an estimated 1.9 billion US dollars in 2022.

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