Mohamed Al-Fayed

Al-Fayed in 2001

Mohamed Anwar Fayed (27 January 1929 – 1 September 2023) was an Egyptian-born businessman who formerly owned the Harrods department store in Knightsbridge and the English Premiership football team. Fulham Football Club. Al-Fayed spread conspiracy theories about the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and his son Dodi Fayed in a car accident.

Quotes

• I love Britain. . . Ethics and morals count in Britain like nowhere else in the world.
  • Comments from 1985, as cited by Maureen Orth in "Holy War at Harrods", Vanity Fair (September 1995)

• [On religion] When we die, our souls still live. If you are a gangster or a bastard or a crook your soul inhabits a donkey or something terrible.
• [On wanting to become Britain's PM] If I have British passport - why not? This is my country now. And I am very popular. I have a warehouse full of letters of support. You can see them.
  • From an interview, as cited in "Mohamed Al Fayed interview: Pharaoh’s revenge", The Guardian (15 April 2006)
  • Al-Fayed was rejected for British citizenship at least twice.

• If this planet lasts for another thousand years people will still be talking about the terrible event we are now living through.
  • On the Death of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed, as quoted in Nick Cohen (17 December 2006). "Why are we so hooked on conspiracies?". The Observer. Retrieved on 18 December 2006. 

• I am not resting until I die. I am not doing this for myself, but for the country.
  • Quoted in Caroline McClatchey (18 February 2007). "Al Fayed states his position on the Diana inquest". BBC News. Retrieved on 18 March 2007. 

• They are the main two. I don't think the Queen is important. The Duke of Edinburgh runs the country behind the scenes; he is the actual head of the Royal Family.
  • From his evidence at the Inquest into the Death of Diana, Princess of Wales, as cited in "I am making no allegations, said Mohamed Al Fayed just murder, racism and cover ups", The Times (19 February 2008)
  • In Al-Fayed's supposed conspiracy, the Prince of Wales (now Charles III) and his father were centrally involved.

• I am not talking to you, you are bloody idiot, you are part of the establishment, you work for MI6.
  • Asked by a BBC reporter about his evidence at the inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, as cited in "Police investigate claims Fayed sexually assaulted 15-year-old: Outspoken Thoughts of Al Fayed", The Independent (23 October 2008), p. 4
  • Citations of his comments vary, but the incident occurred the previous February.

About Mohamed Al-Fayed

• [He] did more good in the world than all his critics rolled together. [...] And I'm very sorry that he's dead because he was a life-enhancing figure and he tremendously supported this country. He believed in it.
• The fact is that if you talk to the people who actually knew him, who worked for him, who were his customers, they have a completely different view from people who sit in ivory towers and take pot shots at him.
  • Michael Cole, on Times Radio (2 September 2023), as cited in Fiona Hamilton, Delara Shakib and Glen Keogh "Mohamed Al Fayed, former owner of Harrods, buried alongside son Dodi", The Times (2 September 2023)
  • Michael Cole was formerly a publicist for Al-Fayed. On the Today programme (BBC Radio 4), he described his former boss as "fascinating, larger than life, full of great humanity."

• Fayed did not want the facts of his background and his take-over of Harrods to come out. He bribed politicians to try to ensure a cover-up. When that failed, and the damning DTI report was finally published, Fayed became angry because his bribes had not worked.
  • Paul Foot "Dear Mohamed", London Review of Books, 19:4 (20 February 1997)
  • On the Cash-for-questions affair.

• All these matters mean, you may think, that Mr al-Fayed's appreciation of what is fact and what is fiction and what is truth and what is fantasy is warped.
  • Mr Justice Morland in the libel action of former MP Neil Hamilton against Al-Fayed, as cited in "Judge's warning over Fayed evidence", BBC News (17 December 1999)
  • Extract from the judge's summing up. Hamilton lost his action against Al-Fayed.

• When Francesca Bettermann was hired, she had to take an H.I.V. test—women working close to the chairman had to undergo full internal exams and be grilled on their entire gynecological histories—and her handwriting was analyzed.
• According to former employees, Fayed regularly walked the store [Harrods] on the lookout for young, attractive women to work in his office. Some were asked to go to Paris with him. Good-looking women were given gifts and cash bonuses almost before they understood that they were being compromised. "Come to Papa," he would say. "Give Papa a hug." Those who rebuffed him would often be subjected to crude, humiliating comments about their appearance or dress. A dozen ex-employees I spoke with said that Fayed would chase secretaries around the office and sometimes try to stuff money down women's blouses.
  • Maureen Orth "Holy War at Harrods", Vanity Fair (September 1995)
  • Al-Fayed dropped a libel action against Vanity Fair in Fall 1997; multiple witnesses corroborated allegations made in the article, including the claims of sexual harassment.

• For evidence of his vengefulness, look no further than his exposure of Neil Hamilton and the other MPs embroiled in the cash-for-questions scandal, and his subsequent pursuit of Jonathan Aitken. This was not a principled stand against corruption, for he was the self-confessed corrupter. It was, rather, an act of straightforward revenge, during which it became plain that he had kept all the necessary documentation to prove his allegations.
  • Henry Porter "Diana 1961-1997: The Fayeds - An outsider, his anguish, and what might have been", The Independent on Sunday (6 September 1997)
  • The original article was published in the IoS.

• [In 1997, Porter was the UK editor of Vanity Fair] Our concern was that if we settled, the evidence about his [Mohamed Al-Fayed's] abuse and surveillance would never be available to her. So it was vital that she understood that all Fayed’s properties were wired for audio and video, and that she could never be sure of having a private conversation on his premises, let alone being able to undress without being watched. Through intermediaries, we made our fears known. Diana's friend Rosa Monckton and her husband Dominic Lawson also repeatedly warned Diana. I have no idea whether she paid attention.
  By the end of July 1997, no agreement was reached.
  • Henry Porter "'Remorseless, ruthless, racist': my battle to expose Mohamed Al Fayed", The Observer (22 September 2024)