Now streaming on Netflix, The Crown once again transports viewers to the past to chronicle the narrative of the British royal family. Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed’s brief romance is the subject of Season 5 of the Netflix series.
This new season is set in the 1990s, a decade that was filled with scandal and tragedy for the royal family. To this day, the world is still reeling from Princess Diana’s tragic death 25 years ago. A vehicle accident in Paris claimed the life of Princess Diana, the Princess of Wales.
A number of other people also lost their lives in addition to Diana. Henri Paul, the driver, and Dodi Al Fayed, Princess Diana’s boyfriend, are presumed dead on impact. Only bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones managed to escape alive; he spent two months in the hospital. He has always said that he has very few recollections of the accident.
For more than just his tragic end in Paris, Dodi Fayed is remembered in the latest season of “The Crown.” The character of Fayed is shown as an ambitious young man struggling to establish his own identity in the wake of his wealthy father’s success. During his lifetime, Mohamed Al Fayed owned the Ritz Hotel in Paris and the prestigious London department store Harrods.
Who did Dodi Fayed date before Princess Diana? When did Fayed and Diana first meet and start dating? All of these questions and more would be answered in this article, but first, here’s all you need to know about Dodi Fayed.
Who Was Princess Diana’s Boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed?
Vanity Fair contributor and royal expert Sally Bedell Smith reports that Fayed was born in Alexandria, Egypt to Mohamed Fayed and Samira Khashoggi.
At the time, Mohamed Al Fayed, the son of a school teacher, worked for Samira Khashoggi’s brother, Adnan Khashoggi, who would later become a billionaire arms dealer.
Dodi’s father Mohamed Al Fayed, a British billionaire was a colorful and divisive character. Mohamed, who was reported to be worth $1.87 billion at the time, was the owner of several high-profile businesses, including the Ritz hotel in Paris, from which Diana and Dodi set off on their tragic journey, Fulham football club, and the prestigious London department store Harrods.
In 1959, Fayed’s parents split up. He lived with his father, who had remarried Finnish socialite and model Heini Wathén and had four children with her.
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Who Was Dodi Fayed Dating Before Princess Diana?
People thought that Dodi was a rich playboy who wanted to become famous. In 2009, The Guardian reported that Dodi had said to a friend, “When am I going to meet a woman so famous that she will put my face on the cover of People magazine?”
Before Diana, Dodi was rumored to have dated Julia Roberts, Brooke Shields, Winona Ryder, and Nancy Sinatra.
The Associated Press says that Fayed was married to model Suzanne Gregard for eight months in 1986.
Fayed was sued by model Kelly Fisher in July 1997 for calling off their engagement once he began dating Diana. Fayed had become engaged to Fisher earlier in the summer, and he used inheritance money to buy a home in Malibu, California, for the couple.
Following Fayed’s death later that month, Fisher withdrew the complaint. It was reported by the Associated Press at the time that a family representative for the Fayeds denied that Dodi Fayed ever made any such pledge to Fisher.
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Dodi Fayed’s Early Life, Education, And Career
Fayed spent his childhood in both Egypt and France. At the age of 19, he joined the British army’s Sandhurst Military Academy and worked as an attaché at the United Arab Emirates embassy in London.
Major Tim Coles, who lived next door to Fayed at the Sandhurst Military Academy, told Vanity Fair’s Alison Smith that Fayed was “quiet, smart, pleasant, funny, friendly, and appreciative of help when it was given.”
“The Crown” shows that Fayed and his father worked together to make “Chariots of Fire,” which won an Oscar. He also made “Hook,” “The Scarlet Letter,” “F/X,” “F/X 2,” and “Breaking Glass.”
In his acceptance speech for the Best Picture Oscar in 1982, producer David Puttnam thanked the Fayeds by saying, “They came through for us and put their money where my mouth is.”
When Did Fayed And Diana First Meet And Start Dating?
According to Sally Bedell Smith’s biography about her, Diana and Fayed met at a polo game in the late 1980s. She was still married to Prince Charles at the time. They didn’t see each other again for over a decade.
In the summer of 1997, Diana and her sons Prince William and Prince Harry were invited by Mohamed Al Fayed to stay at his villa in the south of France.
According to Tina Brown’s book “The Diana Chronicles,” Diana was over her relationship with cardiologist Hasnat Khan. Brown said that the trip would be a good place for her to “nurse her disappointments.”
In the end, they went on Fayed’s father’s yacht together. Alberto Repossi, a jeweler, told the Washington Post that the couple went to his store in Monaco to buy a diamond ring, but that they didn’t say they were engaged.