Egyptian film producer and billionaire's son Dodi Fayed lived an elite, globe-trotting lifestyle and captured worldwide attention as a romantic partner for Diana, Princess of Wales, before they were both killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997. Before his life was cut short, Fayed was involved in big Hollywood projects like "Chariots of Fire," "Hook," "F/X," and "The Scarlet Letter" as an Executive Producer, and was related to late Washington Post Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But the life of Diana's lover was more complicated than it may have seemed. This is the untold truth of Dodi Fayed.
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00:00Wealthy producer Dodi Fayyad embraced a fancy lifestyle and captured worldwide attention
00:06as a romantic partner for Diana, Princess of Wales. But the life of Diana's lover was
00:10more complicated than it may have seemed. Here's the untold truth of Dodi Fayyad.
00:16Film producer Dodi Fayyad was born in April 1955 in Alexandria, Egypt. His father was
00:21an Egyptian businessman named Mohamed El Fayyad, and his mother was Samira Khashoggi, who was
00:26related to an arms dealer named Adnan Khashoggi. Among his other prominent family members was
00:31Jamal Khashoggi, a cousin who was the subject of international headlines in 2018 when he
00:36was assassinated by agents of the Saudi Arabian government.
00:39Dodi's father was a wealthy man, the billionaire owner of the British department store Harrods,
00:45along with the Hotel Ritz-Paris and the Fulham Football Club. As a result of his wealth,
00:50Dodi's life from an early age involved private jets, homes across the globe, and lots of
00:56staff members, bodyguards, and drivers who looked after the family.
01:00Dodi himself was reportedly provided as much as $100,000 to spend on his expenses, but
01:05according to a 2011 profile by Vanity Fair, he was often perceived as a person who couldn't
01:10make it big by himself. Those close to him reportedly felt that he had a tendency of
01:14going from one extravagance to the next. As a producer who worked alongside him for seven
01:19years, Jack Weiner told Vanity Fair,
01:21Around the office, we used to always say, Dodi is a character in a movie.
01:26With all that money at his disposal, Dodi Fayed wasn't exactly known for being careful
01:31with his finances. One of Dodi's ex-partners, Denise Lewis, told The Guardian in 2009 that
01:36he treated her to nothing less than a fairytale lifestyle.
01:40According to Dodi's cousin, Hussein Khashoggi, despite all of his wealth and privilege, Dodi
01:44had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. As he described it to The Guardian,
01:48When you live in that world of big wealth, there is a loss of purpose and a lot of, what
01:54am I doing? What is my goal?
01:56Despite having as much money as he did, there were times when Dodi would overstretch his
02:00budget, taking elaborate private jet trips and buying cutting-edge gadgets on a whim.
02:06For one example, he was reportedly the first person in Los Angeles to get his hands on
02:10a Humvee, and also the new Sony Walkman. His father eventually tried to intervene and helped
02:15out his son by launching a business for him and making him a board member at Harrods.
02:19But nothing worked out for Dodi, until he decided to pursue a career in Hollywood.
02:25Like many things in his life, Dodi Fayed's career as a film producer only started after
02:29his father financed it. With that material support, Fayed launched his film company Allied
02:33Stars, which was responsible for producing the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire. After
02:38his death, well-known publicist Pat Kingsley praised Dodi's work ethic and said that he
02:43was extremely helpful. She told the Los Angeles Times in 1997,
02:47"...as a producer, he had a good reputation. Anytime someone in the prime of their life
02:51is taken away, it is a great loss. Whatever he wanted to do, the world was open to him."
02:58In a period of 17 years, Dodi worked on six films, including The Scarlet Letter, Hook,
03:04and Breaking Glass.
03:06Years before Dodi Fayed started seeing Princess Diana, he was married to model Suzanne Gregard.
03:11They married in 1986, but the relationship was short-lived. They filed for divorce after
03:16just eight months. Later, his ex-wife seemed to defend him in interviews when he was characterized
03:21as a playboy, telling Vanity Fair,
03:23"...his friendships with women were easier. He had an innocence that was very appealing,
03:27attractive, and gentle."
03:29Gregard's brother supported that characterization, saying,
03:32"...Dodi worshipped Suzanne. She actually told me once, you know, he gets down on the ground
03:37and kisses my feet."
03:39Dodi Fayed was first introduced to Diana at a polo match in the late 1980s. Dodi's father
03:44Mohamed, a friend of Diana's father, once offered to host Diana and her kids in France
03:49at one of his posh houses. Diana agreed, which is how she came to meet Dodi again in 1997.
03:55During that holiday, Diana and her sons, William and Harry, spent some quality time with the
03:59Fayeds and sailed on a yacht in the south of France.
04:02Diana had so much fun that she decided to come back for another visit, getting to know
04:06Dodi better and bonding with him. Their time with each other was short but dramatic, often
04:11involving joint attempts to dodge the press.
04:14On August 31, 1997, Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed were enjoying a night out in Paris.
04:20Along with their bodyguard, Trevor Rhys-Jones, they were trying to get away from the paparazzi.
04:24The driver of the car, Henry Paul, was later found to have consumed alcohol. His attempts
04:28to outrun the media resulted in him losing control of the car, leading to a horrific
04:32crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel that would take his life, as well as the lives of Dodi
04:36and Diana.
04:37Dodi Fayed died on the spot, and so did Paul. Diana was alive and taken to a hospital where
04:42she died from her injuries in the early hours of the morning.
04:45"...newsflash at 4.41, that's just a few minutes ago, that Diana, Princess of Wales, has died,
04:52according to British sources."
04:54For Dodi's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, losing his son to the car crash was a shock he had
04:58difficulty coming to terms with. As The New York Times reported in 2008, the businessman
05:03embraced conspiracy theories about his son's death.
05:06"...you believe there was a conspiracy to kill Dodi?"
05:10"...they been murdered. Dodi and Diana been murdered, definitely."
05:16During an inquest into the accident that took Diana and Dodi's lives, Mohamed argued in
05:20court that Prince Philip and Prince Charles had hatched a conspiracy to kill them, colluding
05:24with intelligence services in the UK, France, and the USA to pull it off. Mohamed added
05:29fuel to the fire by calling Philip a racist and a Nazi, claiming a motive for the murder
05:35was to prevent a Muslim from having a child with a member of the royal family. He also
05:39claimed without evidence that Diana was pregnant at the time of her death. Forensic experts
05:44refuted this claim.
05:45Mohamed was roundly criticized for his baseless allegations, with a lawyer for Scotland Yard
05:50named Richard Horwell telling him,
05:52"...you haven't even permitted this woman to have dignity in death, have you, Mr. Clare?"