![]() ![]() The scandal ensnared Prime Minister John Major’s government when al-Fayed paid two senior Conservative politicians to ask questions in Parliament on behalf of Harrod’s-a move that was not technically illegal, but definitely questionable. Al-Fayed denied the claims but became embroiled in investigations and lawsuits. A competitor for the store claimed that al-Fayed lied about his income to seal the deal. The sale of Harrods, in particular, stirred up animosity in England. The British upper-crust kept him at a distance, and he found himself more of an outsider than ever. If al-Fayed hoped these purchases would enchant the royals, he misjudged the Queen and her inner circle. No doubt al-Fayed hoped to catch the eye of the Queen by restoring her uncle’s home to its former glory. He later acquired Punch Magazine, the Fulham soccer team, and finally the Parisian villa that had once belonged to the former King Edward VIII and his wife, Wallis Simpson, after Edward abdicated the throne. ![]() The store stood for Britishness itself, and al-Fayed would continue to snap up buildings and institutions with similar symbolic heft. The purchase of Harrods was just the first of many that al-Fayed hoped would help buy his way into British high society. That same year, he married Finnish model Heini Wathen. In 1979, Mohamad bought the famous Ritz hotel in Paris, and in 1985, he added the iconic London department store Harrods to his holdings. Read More: The True Story Behind Charles, Diana, and Camilla’s Love Triangle How did Mohamad al-Fayed come to own the Ritz in Paris and Harrods in London? Mohamed al-Fayed ran a shipping business, advised the Sultan of Brunei, and briefly worked for a mining conglomerate before moving to England in the 1970s. where Prince William and Prince Harry would eventually go to school. Dodi attended prestigious schools like Sandhurst military academy in the U.K. Before the couple divorced, they had one child together, Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Mena’em Fayed, otherwise known as Dodi. In 1954, he married Samira Khashoggi, the sister of a Saudi Arabian arms dealer named Adnan Khashoggi. ![]()
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