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Mohamed Al-Fayed Is Still Alive And Is 93 Years Old: Where Is Dodi Fayed Father Now?

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Mohamed-Al-Fayed

Throughout his career, Egyptian millionaire Mohamed al-Fayed accumulated a number of notable assets, such as the Ritz Hotel in Paris and Harrods department store in London.

His conflicts with the British elite were also well-known, and they got worse after his son Dodi and Princess Diana of Wales perished in a car accident in 1997.

The documentary claims that Al-Fayed can “melt down in tears” when he thinks of his son Dodi, who died in the same car accident that killed Princess Diana.

Al-former Fayed’s spokeswoman Laurie Mayer discussed how the millionaire believed his son and Diana were “murdered” and started his own private investigation into the Paris car accident in an interview for the second part of Investigating Diana: Death in Paris.

Mohamed Al-Fayed Is Still Alive: Where Is He Now?

The 93-year-old billionaire is active and lives with his wife, Heini, in general.

Fayed extended his holdings and added the prefix “al-” to his name after moving to Britain in 1974, buying the Ritz Hotel in Paris (1979).

The tumultuous relationship between Fayed and the British establishment is well documented.

In a brutal takeover in 1985, he challenged mining conglomerate Lonrho to buy the House of Fraser, the holding company that managed the Harrods department store.

Owner of Lonrho Roland “Tiny” Rowland persuaded the authorities to charge Fayed with lying about his ability to finance the transaction.

His Wife Heini Wathén Is A 67-Years-Old Former Model

Heini Wathen-Fayed and Mohamed Al-Fayed have been married for more than 35 years. She was once a model and is thought to be 67 years old.

She also raised four of the children who belonged to the former Fulham FC owner. The couple, who are reportedly wealthy and worth over £1.2 billion, are thought to own a variety of lavish homes around the world.

Wathen-Fayed asserts that she is contesting the lawsuit to preserve the 12-acre “quiet” setting and prevent development of the neighborhood’s environment.

She also brought a High Court case to stop the development of a substantial cremation site that would be built around half a mile from their luxurious Surrey home.

Heini Wathen-Fayed, 67, filed a lawsuit in response to plans to erect a huge funeral home close to their £4.6 million 17th-century Oxted manor mansion. The complaint relates to plans for the use of green belt land.

The Egyptian Billionaire Net Worth In 2022: $1.9 Billion

With an estimated net worth of $1.9 billion, Mohamed Al Fayed is one of the richest Arabs in the world, according to Forbes.

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, the 93-year-old immigrated to the UK in the middle of the 1960s and made a fortune there.

Most notably, he was the previous owner of London’s Harrod’s, which he sold to Qatar in 2010 for an estimated $2.4 billion.

He is the owner of the storied Ritz Paris, which reopened in 2016 after a four-year renovation. Suites bear the names of notable guests, including Coco Chanel.

Al Fayed reportedly paid $300 million to buy the Fulham Football Club in 2013 from Shahid Khan, an American tycoon who manufactures auto parts.

Dodi Fayed Father: Conspiracy Theories Behind Death Of Princess Daina

At the time of their deaths in a car accident in Paris, France, on August 31, 1997, Dodi, the son of Al-Fayed, was in a romantic connection with Diana, Princess of Wales.

The day it was showcased on the television special Investigating Diana: Death in Paris, the former head of Harrods presented a statue honoring Diana and Dodi at his magnificent Knightsbridge department store.

Al-Fayed said in a statement to media crews at the time, “It’s a sad day for me.

According to Mr. Mayer, “[Mohamed Al-Fayed] himself had long desired acceptance, and that acceptance had come along with the link between Dodi and Diana.”

The billionaire’s investigation into the fatal 1997 vehicle accident was the main focus of the episode in order to learn more about what happened to Diana and Dodi.

Since his former supervisor believed his son had been the victim of a “assassination,” Mr. Mayer claims that his former boss tried to bolster his own hypothesis.

In his opinion, there was no doubt that it was an assassination, he insisted. French investigators ignored al-argument Fayed’s, but nevertheless classified it as a “conspiracy.”

Mohamed Al-Fayed

Mohamed Al-Fayed, an Egyptian-born businessman who was born on January 27, 1929, has lived in the United Kingdom since the late 1960s and has focused his professional activities there. Hôtel Ritz Paris, a former Harrods department store, and Fulham F.C., both in London, are among the companies owned by Fayed.

Dodi, the son of Fayed from his first marriage to Samira Khashoggi, which lasted from 1954 to 1956, was dating Diana, Princess of Wales when they both perished in an automobile accident in Paris in 1997. In addition to having four children—Jasmine, Karim, Camilla, and Omar—with Heini Wathén, a socialite and former model from Finland, Fayed also married her in 1985. Fayed’s wealth was ranked 1,031st in the world in 2013 with an estimated value of US$1.4 billion.

Born 27 January 1929 (age 93) 

Alexandria, Kingdom of Egypt
Nationality Egyptian
Occupation Businessman
Spouse(s)
  • Samira Khashoggi

    (m. 1954; div. 1956)​

  • Heini Wathén

    (m. 1985)​

Children 5, including Dodi and Omar

Early life

He was the eldest son of an Egyptian elementary school teacher and was born in Roshdy, which is located in Alexandria, Egypt. The year of his birth has been called into question. It was previously stated on alfayed.com that he was born in 1933; however, the Department of Trade discovered that his actual year of birth was 1929. In 2011, “1933” was changed to “1929” on the website alfayed.com. Ali, Salah, Soaad, and Safia are Fayed’s offspring and siblings, and he has a total of five children. Ali and Salah have been working alongside him in the firm.

Samira Khashoggi was his wife for the duration of their marriage, which lasted from 1954 till 1956. Fayed collaborated on projects with Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian arms dealer and businessman. Khashoggi was Fayed’s wife’s brother.

He started referring to himself as “Al-Fayed” rather than “Fayed” at some point in the early 1970s. At the time that they purchased the House of Fraser in the 1980s, his brothers Ali and Salah began to follow suit. However, by the late 1980s, both of them had reverted to calling themselves simply “Fayed.” Although “Al-” does not have the same social connotations in Arabic as “de” or “von,” some people have speculated that the reason Fayed added “Al-” to his name was to imply that he came from an aristocratic family, similar to how “de” or “von” do in French and German. Because of this presumption, Private Eye magazine dubbed him the “Phoney Pharaoh.”

United Kingdom

Early business dealings

In Egypt, Fayed and his brothers established a shipping company, which later relocated its main operations to Genoa, Italy, with further locations in London. Around 1964, Fayed developed a close relationship with Francois Duvalier, also known as “Papa Doc,” the leader of Haiti, and became interested in the construction of a Fayed-Duvalier oil refinery in that country. In addition to this, he had a relationship with the geologist George de Mohrenschildt. Six months later, Fayed decided to cut short his time in Haiti after discovering that a sample of “crude oil” delivered by his associates in Haiti was actually of a low-quality molasses.

After that, Fayed relocated to England, where he settled in the heart of London. In the middle of the 1960s, Fayed had a meeting with Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai. Sheikh Rashid entrusted Fayed with the task of assisting in the transformation of Dubai, and in 1968, Fayed established IMS (International Marine Services).  In order to carry out the necessary construction work in the emirate, Fayed invited British businesses such as the Costain Group, Bernard Sunley & Sons, and Taylor Woodrow. Fayed eventually became a director of the Costain Group and a 30% shareholder in the company. In 1966, he also took on the role of financial advisor to Omar Ali Saifuddien III, who was serving as Sultan of Brunei at the time.

In 1975, Fayed had a brief stint as a board member for the mining giant Lonrho, but he quit the company after a disagreement. In 1979, he spent $30 million to acquire The Ritz hotel, which is located in Paris, France.

In 1984, Fayed and his brothers bought a thirty percent investment in House of Fraser from Roland ‘Tiny’ Rowland, the head of Lonrho. House of Fraser was a conglomerate that comprised the famous London department store Harrods. In 1985, he and his brothers paid a total of £615 million to acquire the remaining 70 percent of House of Fraser. Rowland asserted that the Fayed brothers had lied about their history and their fortune, and he exerted pressure on the government to look into their claims. An investigation into the Fayeds has been initiated by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The subsequent investigation from the DTI was damning, but the Fayeds were not punished in any way. Furthermore, despite the fact that many people believed the findings of the study, others believed that it was politically driven.

In 1998, Rowland accused Fayed of taking items from his safe deposit box at Harrods, which included diamonds and documents. Fayed was taken into custody, but the allegations against him were ultimately dismissed. Rowland died in 1998. The disagreement was resolved by Fayed with a payment made to his widow. In 2002, Fayed sued the Metropolitan Police for false arrest, but he was unsuccessful in his legal action.

House of Fraser became public in 1994, whilst Mohammed Fayed continued to have private ownership of Harrods. He reintroduced the satirical magazine Punch in 1996, but it went out of business once more in 2002. Al-Fayed submitted his citizenship application to the United Kingdom twice, first in 1994 and once in 1999, but neither attempt was successful.  It was speculated that Fayed’s dispute with Rowland was one of the factors that led to the initial denial of his application for British citizenship.