Dodi Fayed

Life and career

Fayed was born in Alexandria, Egypt and was the eldest son of billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed, former owner of Harrods department store. His father was also the former owner of Fulham Football Club and the Hôtel Ritz Paris. Fayed's mother was the author Samira Khashoggi, who was a Saudi-citizen of Turkish descent; her father was Dr Muhammad Khashoggi and brother the billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. Fayed was a student at Collège Saint Marc before attending the Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland. He also briefly attended Sandhurst. After completing his education, he served as an attaché at the United Arab Emirates Embassy in London.

Fayed was the executive producer of the films Chariots of Fire, Breaking Glass, F/X, F/X2, Hook, and The Scarlet Letter. He also served as the executive creative consultant for the F/X: The Series television series. Fayed also worked for his father on Harrods' marketing.

Personal life

In 1986, Fayed married model Suzanne Gregard, but the couple divorced after eight months of marriage.

In July 1997, Fayed became romantically involved with Diana, Princess of Wales. Earlier that summer, Fayed had become engaged to an American model, Kelly Fisher, and had bought a house in Malibu, California for himself and Fisher with money from his father. Fisher subsequently claimed Fayed had jilted her for Diana and announced that she was filing a breach of contract suit against him, claiming that he had "led her emotionally all the way up to the altar and abandoned her when they were almost there. He threw her love away in a callous way with no regard for her whatsoever". She dropped the lawsuit shortly after Fayed's death.

Death

In the early-morning hours of 31 August 1997, Diana and Fayed died in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma underpass, in Paris. They had stopped in Paris en route to London, after having spent nine days together on holiday in the French and Italian Rivieras aboard his family's yacht, the Jonikal. Neither Fayed nor Diana were wearing a seat belt.

Investigations by French and British police concluded that their chauffeur, Henri Paul, was driving under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs; paparazzi chasing the couple are also believed to have contributed to the accident. Fayed's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed, has claimed that the couple were executed by MI6 agents. Fayed's former spokesman, Michael Cole, has claimed that the couple had become engaged before their deaths.

Fayed was originally interred in Brookwood Cemetery near Woking, Surrey, but was disinterred and re-buried on the grounds of the Fayed estate in Oxted, Surrey in October 1997.

Memorials

Fayed's father has erected two memorials to his son and Diana at Harrods. The first, unveiled on 12 April 1998, consists of photos of the two behind a pyramid-shaped display that holds a wine glass still smudged with lipstick from Diana's last dinner, as well as a ring Fayed purchased the day before they died. The second, unveiled in 2005 and titled Innocent Victims, is a 3-metre-high bronze statue of the two dancing on a beach, beneath the wings of an albatross. The memorials were designed by 80-year-old Bill Mitchell, a close friend of Dodi's father and architect for Harrods for more than 40 years.