The BBC has made public a series of allegations of abuse against Mohamed Al-Fayed. Now another woman speaks out and calls him a “dirty guy.”
Mohamed Al-Fayed died a year ago at the age of 94. Now more and more details about his life are coming to light. Numerous women accuse the entrepreneur of abuse in revelations made by the British broadcaster BBC. A corresponding documentary, which talks about more than 20 women affected, was published on Thursday. Then on Friday the latest development: Another woman made allegations and said that Mohamed Al-Fayed had attacked her in his London apartment.
The explosive thing: According to the woman, the police were about to arrest the entrepreneur based on her allegations. But then Al-Fayed died in August 2023. The alleged victim is not named, but is said to have been employed by Al-Fayed at the age of 21, when he was in his late 70s. The following happened at a meeting: “When I “When I got up to leave, he put his hands on my chest and said some pretty disgusting things. I was completely shocked.” In this context, she describes Al-Fayed as, among other things, a “dirty guy.”
The Egyptian entrepreneur was the former owner of the London luxury department store Harrods and the football club Fulham FC – and the father of Dodi Al-Fayed. His son's name will be particularly familiar to fans of the British royal family. Dodi Al-Fayed died in a car accident in 1997. With him in the car: Princess Diana. The then 42-year-old businessman and the ex-wife of King Charles III. – then still Prince Charles – were a couple. They are said to have met through Mohamed Al-Fayed.
As the British newspaper Daily Mail reported, Mohamed Al-Fayed met Charles and Diana, who separated in 1992, at a polo match in the 1980s. This is ultimately how contact between Dodi and Diana came about. Not much was known about the relationship between the two. In 1997 they were spotted together on vacation in St. Tropez, sparking the first rumors of a romance.
A year after Mohamed Al-Fayed's death, the BBC is now making more and more allegations of abuse public. Numerous women have accused Mohamed Al-Fayed of rape, physical violence and sexual assault. As the broadcaster reported on Thursday, BBC journalists spoke to more than 20 women for a documentary and podcast.
According to the documentary “Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods” (in German: “Al-Fayed: The Predator at Harrods”), five former employees say they were raped by the department store boss, five more report attempted rape, and 13 more were found guilty According to her own statements, she was sexually harassed by her boss. According to the report, Mohamed Al-Fayed regularly summoned employees to his London apartment in the evenings to make them work overtime – and then became abusive.
There had already been allegations in the past that Mohamed Al-Fayed groped and sexually abused women. An investigation into alleged rape was closed in 2015, according to the BBC. A former Harrods manager told the BBC that the boss's sexual assaults were well known within the company and that there were frequent innuendos or jokes about them.
The current owners of luxury department store Harrods said they were “deeply shocked” by the allegations of abuse. “As a company, we have failed our employees who were his victims, and for that we sincerely apologize.” In July last year, Harrods reached its first out-of-court settlements with women who said they were sexually abused by Mohamed Al-Fayed between the late 1980s and the late 2000s.
