IN SEASON 5 OF THE CROWN ON NETFLIX, FIND OUT WHO MOHAMED AL FAYED IS!
The Crown is now on Netflix! Continue reading to find out who Mohamed Al Fayed is!
Season 5 of The Crown, the series’ penultimate season that follows the lives of the British royal family in the 1990s, promises “the beginning of the end.” Read this for the most up-to-date information on the new cast.
But, before delving into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Queen Elizabeth II’s self-proclaimed “annus horribilis,” the third episode takes a detour into the past to spotlight Mohamed Al Fayed, an Egyptian billionaire living in England and the father of Dodi Fayed, Princess Diana’s love interest at the time of her death. Read this to find out why Season 5 ended the way it did.
The episode delves into Mohamed Al Fayed’s life, including how he moved from Egypt to Britain and eventually found himself in the royal sphere, sitting next to Diana during a polo match in the 1980s.
MOHAMMAD AL FAYED IS WHO?
In Egypt, Mohamed Al Fayed was born. Mohamed Fayed (the prefix “al” was added in the 1970s) was born in Alexandria, Egypt. Mohamed Al Fayed claimed to be born in 1933 and descended from a wealthy Egyptian family.
In a 750-page report on its takeover of Britain’s House of Fraser department store in 1988, the British Department of Trade and Industry discovered that Al Fayed and his brother Ali had falsified “their origins, wealth, interests traders, and resources.”
Mohamed Al Fayed married and divorced Samira Khashoggi, with whom he had one child, Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Mena’em Fayed, also known as Dodi.
He ran a shipping company for a time before becoming an adviser to the Sultan of Brunei in the 1960s, who was then widely regarded as one of the wealthiest men in the world. Fayed moved to England in the 1970s, where he would spend the majority of the rest of his life.
Mohamed Al Fayed briefly worked for the mining conglomerate Lonrho before purchasing the famous Ritz hotel in Paris in 1979.
He married Heini Wathen, a Finnish model, and actress, in 1985, the same year he acquired the Harrods department store. The couple is the parents of four children. Read this to find out how old the Queen is in each season.
In March of that year, Al Fayed Investment and Trust paid $842 million for a majority stake in House of Fraser, the parent company of Harrods and 100 other department stores.
The transaction was the subject of legal action. A slew of lawsuits and investigations followed, culminating in a report from the UK Department of Trade and Industry. Read this to learn everything about the upcoming season 6 of The Crown.
Nonetheless, Fayed remained at the helm of Harrods for 25 years before selling the department store and retiring in 2010. Mohamed Al Fayed applied to become a British citizen at least twice, but his requests were always denied.
WHAT HAPPENS TO MOHAMED AL FAYED TODAY?
In 2010, Mohamed Al Fayed announced the sale of Harrods to Qatar Holdings for £1.5 billion.
In 2013, he also sold the Fulham Football Club property, which he had purchased in 1997, for a reported $300 million to American auto parts billionaire Shahid Khan.
In November 2022, Forbes estimated his fortune to be around $1.9 billion. As far as is known, Mohamed Al Fayed appears to be in good health and has retired from business to spend more time with his family.
