Billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed Dies Aged 94

94-year-old Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed passed away on Friday, September 1 in London. He was the father of Dodi Fayed, who died in a car accident in 1997 together with Princess Diana, and the previous owner of the Fulham football team and the department store Harrods.

According to Al Jazeera Egypt, he was buried after Friday prayers following a service at the Regent’s Park Mosque in London.

According to the Al Shorouk daily, Ashraf Haider, a relative, wrote: “My wife’s grandfather, the Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, has died. We belong to God and to Him we shall return.”

In 1929, Mohamed Al-Fayed was born in Alexandria, Egypt. He made his wealth in business before relocating to the UK in the middle of the 1960s. In 1954, he wed Samira Khashoggi, with whom he had one son, Emad, also known as Dodi. In 1956, the couple got a divorce.

The most notable accomplishment of Al-Fayed is his ownership of Harrods, which he acquired in 1985 and sold to Qatar for $2.4 billion in 2010. He also owned Fulham Football Club and the Ritz-Carlton, Paris.

Al Fayed reportedly paid $300 million to Shahid Khan for the purchase of Fulham Football Club in 2013.

Before their passion blossoming while on a yacht vacation in the south of France, his eldest son, Dodi, had been acquainted with the princess for about ten years.

The billionaire believed the couple were killed intentionally “because they still don’t accept that Dodi, my son, an Egyptian, a Muslim, can be the stepfather of the future king,” he said in a 60 Minutes Australia interview.

However, they were denied the chance to spend their lives together as they perished side by side in a Paris vehicle accident.

Al-Fayed was an outspoken opponent of the British royal family since he thought they were complicit in the 1997 car accident that claimed the lives of his son Dodi and Princess Diana.