Queen Elizabeth II was warned by her security staff that Mohamed Al Fayed was "a lecherous women abuser," as stated to The Daily Mail by former Scotland Yard police officer and former head of royal protection Dai Davies. "I was aware that Al Fayed had sexually assaulted women and paid them," Davies acknowledges. "In 1997, there were accusations that he had been bribing MPs to avoid questions in Parliament," Davies asserts. "There was a concern that he was an old pervert. I did not hesitate to warn the queen about this individual." The warning, according to the former head of royal protection, came just before the visit of Princess Diana to his yacht and summer villa in Saint-Tropez with her sons, William and Harry. It was allegedly during this trip that Diana's relationship with Al Fayed's eldest son, Dodi, solidified, with whom she would later tragically lose her life in the fatal accident in Paris on August 31, 1997. "I advised the queen's private secretary, Lord (Robert) Fellowes, not to let the boys vacation with him because I was aware of the accusations that he was a lecherous women abuser," says Dai Davies, who regrets at this point that his warning fell on deaf ears.
Al Fayed and his son Dodi with Princess Diana and her son William at a polo match in 1988.GTRES
The scene of the encounter between Diana and Al Fayed was recreated almost like a fairy tale in the last season of the series The Crown. Actor Salim Daw, who offers a softened version, acknowledges that the tycoon who passed away at 94 years old "was revered as a myth in the Middle East," before the recent accusations of at least five rape cases and over 20 cases of sexual abuse, as detailed in the BBC documentary Al Fayed: a sexual predator at Harrods. "There were serious accusations against him, and yet he was not charged," points out Dai Davies, referring to at least two occasions when the Crown Prosecution Service decided to drop the charges due to insufficient evidence. "Why was nothing done? It is clear that there were several victims." The Egyptian millionaire, who made a living in his childhood selling Coca-Cola cans on the streets of Alexandria and ended up being the proud owner of Harrods for 25 years, was ultimately obsessed with the British royal family and had managed to get close to the queen through their shared passion for horses at the Windsor Horse Show.
The Egyptian tycoon with Prince Charles at a polo event he sponsored in 1986.GTRES
"I've had enough," declared Al Fayed, who ended up selling Harrods to the Qatari royal family and also divesting himself of the Fulham Football Club and most of his interests in the UK. At the time of his death in London on August 30, 2023 (one day before the anniversary of Diana and Dodi's deaths), his fortune was estimated at over 1.8 billion euros.