The Crown season 5, episode 3 included the character of Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Daw), who is a real-life millionaire from Egypt. Mohamed, or “Mou Mou” as his friends refer to him, is the father of Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla), who will one day fall in love with Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki), pass away in a car tragedy in Paris on August 31, 1997, and marry the Princess of Wales. Mohamed Al-Fayed received a whole episode in The Crown season 5, which is unusual for a non-royal family member and highlights Mou Mou’s significance.
The in-person According to Forbes, millionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed would have a net worth of $1.9 billion in 2022. In contrast, Forbes estimated that Queen Elizabeth II’s (Imelda Staunton) net worth will be $426 million in 2022. Season 5 of The Crown shows that Mohamed paid $30 million for The Ritz Hotel in 1979. Chariots of Fire, which Dodi produced and for which he received the Academy Award for Best Picture, was likewise made possible with his money. Al-Fayed and his younger brothers bought House of Fraser in 1984 and 1985, giving them ownership of the renowned London department store Harrods. Mohamed purchased the Fulham Football Club in 1997 and sold it in 2013 for an estimated $300 million.
How Mohamed Al-Fayed Made His Money
The early commercial endeavors of Mohamed Al-Fayed before his 1970s migration to the UK are not well known. In 1954, he wed Samira Khashoggi, the sister of Adnan Khashoggi, a dealer in weapons, and she is the mother of Dodi. In 1966, the couple was divorced. Mohamed started a shipping company, worked in the Saudi Arabian import industry, and in 1966 Mou Mou was hired as a consultant by the Sultan of Brunei. The Crown noted Mohamed’s questionable financial and economic transactions in the 1960s and 1970s when the Al-Fayed bought the Ritz Hotel in 1979.
According to The Crown, Mohamed Al-Fayed was always vying for prestige and the royal family’s endorsement in upper-class British society. Al-Fayed wanted to integrate himself into the upper levels of British society, so he bought Harrods and hired Sydney Johnson (Jude Akuwidike), the Duke of Windsor’s former valet, as his servant. Princess Diana served as a good substitute for Mohamed since he was unable to see the Queen he so desired. Mou In St. Tropez, Mou made sure that Dodi would spend time with the fragile and lonely Diana, and in the summer of 1997, they did indeed start dating.
Why Did Mohamed Al-Fayed Disappear?
Mohamed Al-Fayed made the public assertion that the automobile crash wasn’t an accident but rather a murder the royal family planned after the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi. Additionally, Mohamed promoted a conspiracy theory in 2001, claiming that Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, had ordered MI6 to orchestrate the crash because Diana was carrying Dodi’s child (Jonathan Pryce). Because the House of Windsor “still doesn’t accept that Dodi, my son, an Egyptian, a Muslim, can be the stepfather of the future king,” Al-Fayed claimed to 60 Minutes Australia that he believed the death of Diana and Dodi was ordered by them. Mohamed contributed money to Unlawful Killing, a 2011 documentary of his version of Diana and Dodi’s death, but it was never broadcast due to the risk of libel lawsuits.
