Princess Diana's boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed—who was killed alongside her in a tragic 1997 car accident—has found his name back in the headlines in recent days thanks to the Egyptian film producer's late father, Mohamed Al-Fayed. Former Harrods owner Mohamed has been posthumously accused of raping multiple women, and a new interview with Princess Diana's bodyguard reveals he tried to warn the royal against associating with the family.
"We may not have known anything about him and girls at that stage, but his reputation was already controversial and I was very anxious that Diana associating with him would not only harm her, but the good name of the monarchy," Diana's bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, told the Daily Mail's Richard Kay.
At the time, Wharfe was concerned with a 1990 Department of Trade and Industry report that revealed how Al-Fayed "fabricated stories about his origins, wealth, business interests and resources."
"I told her that he was basically a villain and it would make life very difficult for the Queen if he was able to parade the princess and the boys as his guests at a time when he was publicly fighting Her Majesty's government over its failure to grant him a passport," Wharfe said.
"Happily, back then she would take advice and was shrewd enough to see what I was driving at," Wharfe added, but after her divorce from King Charles (then the Prince of Wales) "she was no longer obliged to follow palace rules," per Kay.
"The Fayed she knew was a warm family man, whose four children with his second wife, Finnish former model Heini Wathen, were close in age to William and Harry," Kay wrote in his piece, adding that Diana told him the Harrods boss's home had "an atmosphere of loving and happy domesticity."
However, Kay writes that friends of the princess "told her all Fayed's properties were wired for audio and video and that he eavesdropped – and worse – on his guests."
They warned her not to accept an invitation from the businessman to join his family on vacation because "Diana couldn't even be certain of being able to undress without being watched."
It was a warning that came well ahead of this year's BBC documentary, Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods, which revealed accusations of how Al-Fayed, who died in 2023 at age 94—sexually assaulted a number of Harrods employees over the years.
The BBC reported that it "heard testimony from more than 20 female ex-employees" who stepped forward to claim that their boss "sexually assaulted or raped them."
However, it seems Princess Diana was completely in the dark surrounding her boyfriend's father, with Kay pointing out that fellow Daily Mail writer Amanda Platell pondered how if "Diana heard one whisper of the appalling allegations against the man who so dazzled her, she might still be alive today."
Kay writes that it was "bitterly ironic" that this "father figure" would see "in the lonely and vulnerable princess an opportunity to make her his ultimate possession."
At the end of the day, no one will never know what would have happened if Diana had heeded her friends' and bodyguard's warnings, but according to Kay, it seems like their suggestions might not have made a difference either way.
"If anything, the hostility of her friends towards Fayed helped propel her into his arms," Kay wrote.
